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HISTORICAL OUTLINE 



OP THE 



^wetitan eoloniiation Socicts, 

AND REMARKS 

ON THE 

ADVANTAGES AND PRACTICABILITY 

OP 

COLONIZING IN AFRICA 

THE 

FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR FROM THE UNITED STATES 



FROM THE NORTH 



AMERICAN REVIEW FOR JANUARY, 1824. 



Uostott : 

O. EVERETT, 13 CORNHILL- 
1924. 



.SV5 



Press of the North American Revieir. 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



The Sixth Annual Report of the American Society for Co- 
lonizing the Free People of Color of the United States ; 
with an Appendix. Washington City, 1823. 

If we should be thought to come forward at a late hour, 
in noticing the labors of a Society, formed in this country 
more than seven years ago, for the purpose of adopting some 
efficient plan of colonizing the free people of color, we trust 
our negligence will be attributed to any other cause, than a 
want of deep interest in the objects of the Society, or indifTe- 
rence to the zeal with which these objects have been pursued. 
The broad foundation on which the schemes of this Society 
are built, as well as the character of its patrons, raises it to 
an importance, not to be claimed by any other private asso- 
ciation in this country. Its aims have a pointed bearing on 
our political concerns, and, if successful, cannot fail to ope- 
rate most favorably on our civil institutions, and our domestic 
peace and happiness. 

Coming to us in this shape, and patronized as it is by 
some of our most enlightened statesmen and disinterested 
philanthropists, the Colonization Society demands of those, 
who would judge with fairness, to examine dispassionately, 
not its history and details only, but its purposes and princi- 
ples, not the failures which it may have suffered from acci- 
dents or inexperience, but the motives by which it is actuated, 



4 Colonization Society. 

and the objects which it would attain. Such an examination 
we are disposed to give it. What has this Society done ? 
What advantages can be expected from its success.'* Are 
its designs practicable ? By what means can they be best 
promoted ? To these general topics our inquiry shall be 
directed. 

The plan of colonizing the free people of color, in some 
place remote from the United States, originated in the legis- 
lature of Virginia nearly twenty years ago. A correspond- 
ence on the subject was entered into between Mr Munroe, 
then governor of Virginia, and Mr Jefferson, President of the 
United States. The purpose of this correspondence is 
explained in a letter from Mr Jefferson, written ten years 
afterwards, and published among other documents appended 
to the First Annual Report of the Colonization Society. It 
appears, that the governor of Virginia, at the request of the 
legislature, consulted the national executive on the best 
means of procuring an asylum for the free blacks of that 
State, and of establishing a colony where they might assume 
a rank and enjoy privileges from which the laws and struc- 
ture of society must forever prohibit them, in their present 
situation. Mr Jefferson proposed to gain them admittance 
into the establishment at Sierra Leone, which then belonged 
to a private company in England, or, in case this should fail, 
to procure a situation in some of the Portuguese settlements 
in South America. He wrote to Mr King, then our minister 
in London, to apply to the Sierra Leone Com})any. This 
application was made, but without success, on the ground 
that the Company was about to dissolve, and give up its 
possessions to the government. An attemj)! to negotiate with 
the Portuguese government proved equally abortive, and no 
further active measures were taken. 

The legislature of Virginia, however, ceased not to hold 
fast its original purpose. The subject was from time to time 
discussed, till, in the year 1816, a formal resolution was 
passed, authorizing the executive of the state to correspond 
with the President of the United States, soliciting his aid in 
procuring a situation for colonizing the free blacks, and such 
as might afterwards be emancipated. The senators and 
representatives in Congress from Virginia, were requested to 



Colonization Society. 5 

lend their exertions in advancing this object. Mr Mercer, in 
his address at the first annual meeting of the Colonization 
Society, observed, that ' this resolution passed the popular 
branch of the legislature of Virginia with but nine dissenting 
voices out of one hundred and forty six ; and a full quorum 
of the senate, with but one. It was, in fact, but a repetition 
of certain resolutions, which had been unanimously adopted 
by the same legislature, though in secret sessions, at three 
antecedent periods in the last seventeen years. It was truly 
the feeling and the voice of Virginia.' The legislatures of 
Maryland, Temiessee, and Georgia, followed the example of 
Virginia, and adopted a resolution of the same import. The 
doings of these four states were mentioned with approbation 
in the report of a committee of Congress, although the great 
object at which they pointed, the plan of colonization under 
the patronage of the government, seems never to have engaged 
the deliberations of the national councils. 

The first person, as far as we can learn, who conceived 
the notion of forming a society for colonizing the free blacks, 
was the Rev. Dr Finley of New Jersey. This gendeman 
had long felt a warm interest in the condition of this class of 
our population, and had consulted his friends on the best 
mode of providing for them a country and a home beyond 
the limits of the United States. He finally settled it in his 
mind, that Africa was the most suitable place for such a 
eolony. In December, 181G, he went to Washington, where 
he began in earnest to put his plan in execution, wrote a 
pamphlet to recommend it to the public, applied in person 
to several members of Congress, and citizens of Washington, 
and at length succeeded in causing a few persons to listen to 
his representations and embrace his views. On the 21st of 
the same month, several gentlemen convened to consider the 
subject, when the meeting was opened by an address from 
Mr Clay, explaining its object, and setting forth the advan- 
tages, which might be expected to result from a colonization 
society. He was followed by Mr Randolph and other gen- 
tlemen, who accorded with him in sentiment. A committee 
was appointed to prepare a constitution, which was adopted 
the week following, and Judge Washington, of the Supreme 
Court, was chosen president of the Society. 



6 Colonization Society. 

On Dr Finley's return to New Jersey, the legislature was 
in session at Trenton, and by his exertions, an auxiliary so- 
ciety was formed, which received the cordial support of 
several members of the legislature. About this time he was 
chosen president of Frankhn College, at Athens, Georgia, to 
which place he soon after repaired. For some months his 
health had been on the dechne, and he died, we beUeve, in 
Georgia, before the close of the next year.* 

Immediately after the organization of the Society, it was 
determined to send out two agents to explore the western 
coast of Africa, and seek for the best position to commence 
a colony. Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess were 
appointed to this enterprise, and they sailed for England in 
the latter part of November 1817. It was deemed advisable 
to visit England on their way, for the purpose of gaining a 
favorable reception at the colony of Sierra Leone, of esta- 
blishing a friendly intercourse with the African Institution at 
London, and of obtaining such knowledge as would be essen- 
tially important in preparing them for their inquiries on the 
coast of Africa. By Judge Washington they were provided 
with a letter to the Duke of Gloucester, the president and 
zealous patron of the African Institution, who received them 
with kindness, proffered assistance, and expressed an interest 
in the benevolent undertakings of the American Colonization 
Society. Mr Wilberforce, whose name is so intimately 
blended with all the schemes of humanity, which the last 
thirty years have witnessed in favor of the degraded Africans, 
was assiduous in his attention to the agents, and active in 
forwarding their designs. He introduced them to Lord 
Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, who 
gave them a letter of introduction and recommendation to 
the governor of Sierra Leone. In their letters from England, 
the agents also acknowledged themselves under obligations to 
Lord Gambler, Lord Teignmouth, and many other gentlemen 
of eminence and worth, who approved their design, and from 

* Dr Finley was educated at Priin eton Collcije, under the celebrated Dr 
Witherspoon. He was respected ;is a scholar, and esteemed as a faitliAiI 
j)astor, and amiable and benevolent man. His i)aniplilet above mentioned 
speaks well for his understanding and his education, .ice .Memoirs of Dr Fin- 
tfi/, ]>n;^e H2. 



Colonization Society. 7 

whom they received marks of kindness. While in London 
they were moreover furnished by Count Schimmelman, late 
minister of state in the kingdom of Denmark, with a letter 
from the Colonial Department of the Danish government, 
recommending them to the protection and assistance of the 
governors of the Danish Colonies in Africa. 

Under auspices thus favorable, they sailed from the Downs 
on the 2d of February 1818. They first landed at St Mary's, 
a village on the banks of the Gambia, and near its mouth. 
Ten days afterwards they arrived at Sierra Leone. Go- 
vernor Macarthy was absent on a visit to the Gambia, and 
Lord Bathurst's letter was delivered to the Chief Justice of 
the colony. Shortly after their arrival, the agents met the 
principal members of what is called the Friendly Society, or 
an association composed wholly of colored people, instituted 
at the suggestion of the celebrated Paul CufFee, and consisting 
for the most part of colonists whom he had carried out from 
the United States. These persons were highly gratified with 
the statements of the agents, and two leading men, Kizell and 
Martin, who were well acquainted with the country, offered 
to accompany them as interpreters and guides down the 
coast, introduce them to the chiefs, and assist in negotiating 
for lands in the island of Sherbro, or any other place which 
should be thought preferable. A sloop of fifteen tons was 
engaged, men sufficient to work it, all Africans, were em- 
ployed, and provisions laid in for an absence of four weeks. 
Thus equipped they sailed out of the harbor of Sierra 
Leone, and on the next day found themselves in sight of the 
Bananas. As the headman of these islands was understood 
to have some influence with the kings of the Sherbro, it was 
'deemed good poUcy to pay their respects to him in passing ; 
and to make these the more acceptable, they were accompa- 
nied by the valuable consideration of a few bars of tobacco 
and gunpowder. Caulker, for this was the headman's 
name, was pleased with their tokens of respect, and promised 
his interest in their behalf. They next arrived at the plan- 
tains, where the headman, who had lived six years in Eng- 
land, received them very civilly, but expressed apprehensions 
that the colonists, if they once had footing in the country, 
might find it convenient to extend their territory too rapidly. 



8 Colonization Society. 

and be troublesome to their neighbors. He cited the instance 
of Sierra Leone as a foundation for his fears, but on the 
whole was willing an experiment should be made. 

Several other kings were visited on the way down to the 
Sherbro. The agents had the good fortune at Bendou to find 
not only Somano, the king of the place, but Safah, another king, 
whose dominions they would have been obliged to seek out. 
It was no sooner told to Somano, that two ambassadors from 
America desired an audience, than he summoned them to 
appear at the palaver house. When they approached, the 
king was seated in his place. ' Safah soon made his appear- 
ance, marching along between the mud walled cottages, 
dressed in a silver laced coat, a superb three cornered hat, a 
mantle around his neck hanging nearly to the ground, blue 
bafta trowsers, considerably the worse for the wear, and 
without stockings or shoes. Somano was dressed in a com- 
mon gowii and pantaloons, with hat and shoes.' After a 
formal introduction to the kings, and shaking hands with all 
the men and women collected around the palaver house, it 
was remembered that the presents were unluckily left on 
board the sloop, and the kings had no words to speak till 
these were produced. Kizell was despatched to bring them ; 
but there was a greater difficulty yet to come. When the 
articles intended for the presents were spread before the 
kings, they discovered only one jar of rum. They refused 
to be moved by so small a temptation to open the palaver, 
insisting, that as there were two kings it was unworthy of 
their regal dignity to deliberate on affairs so important, with- 
out a bottle of rum for each. Kizell was again sent to the 
sloop, and all obstructions were removed by producing an- 
other bottle. The kings' ears were then unsealed, and they 
were ready t6 hear what their visitors had to propose. The 
notion of a colony did not strike them favorably ; they had 
fears of encroachments ; they referred to Sierra Leone, and 
.spoke of a war growing out of that settlement, which deprived 
king Tom of his territory. No serious objections were raised, 
however, and the result was, tiiat Somano and Safah would 
acquiesce in the decision of their superior, king Sherbro. It 
was only urged as indispensable, that should an arrangement 
be made, they should liave, among other things, ' a silver 
headed cane, and especially a black horsetail, furnished 



Colonization Society. 9 

With an elegant handle.' This latter article is a badge of 
royalty, without which no prince can pretend to much rank, 
or hope for authority and respect. 

We next find our party at Yonie, the residence of king 
Sherbro, chief man of the country. The king was absent, 
but Kong Couber, a man of consequence, gave an audience 
to Kizell and Martin, who were clothed with the office of 
av ant-courier es to the agents. Kong Couber received them 
affably, and hstened with attention, but ventured no decided 
opinion. He said a council of the headmen must be called, 
in which the king would preside, and the subject would re- 
ceive the consideration it deserved. Accordingly the next 
day notice was given, that the king would hold a palaver, and 
hear the words of the strangers. They waited on him at the 
appointed time, and found him prepared for business, dressed 
in a calico gown, with a cap and three cornered hat on his 
head. The council convened under a cola tree ; the presents 
were displayed on a mat in the centre of the circle ; the usual 
ceremonies were gone through ; king Sherbro was seated in 
his regal chair, with a silver headed cane in one hand, and a 
horsetail, the visible token of his kingly power, in the other. 
The agents explained their instructions, told him they wanted 
lands for people in a far country, whose ancestors were 
natives of Africa, and who would come and settle quietly in 
die dominions of king Sherbro. 

The object of their visit being thus made known in detail, 
Kong Couber, who acted as his majesty's prime minister, 
replied, that their words were very good, but told them with 
disapprobation, that they had stopped at the Bananas, and 
consulted Caulker and other chiefs before they came to 
Yonie. After this, how could they say, that they were com- 
missioned to treat directly with king Sherbro .? This unex- 
pected question was answered rather awkwardly by the agents, 
who could only apologize that they were unacquainted with 
the customs of the country, and but indifferently informed as 
to the gradation of rank among the kings. Kong Couber 
was not satisfied, but considered it a disrespect to Sherbro, 
that they should first go to the other kings, and especially was 
he displeased, that these kings did not send presents, or come 
themselves to consult the great king. It was concluded that 
nothing should be done, at lea-t, till Somano and Safah were 
o 



10 Colonization Society. 

present, and tlie council broke up with an order from the 
king to send a special messenger to require their attendance. 
This point was not so easily effected. The remains of an 
old feud with Sherbro still lingered in the minds of these two 
chiefs, and they could not readily be prevailed on to engage 
in the palaver. After a week's delay, other messengers were 
sent ; Somano and Safah arrived ; the old differences between 
the parties were settled at a private council, and the day 
came when the kings declared themselves ready to hold the 
grand palaver. 

' We went on shore,' says Mr Mills, ' and found all assembled 
under the cola tree. Sherbro was seated in his armed chair, with 
Somano on his right hand and Safah on his left, holding the insignia 
of his office, the silver headed cane and the horsetail. Kong Cou- 
ber sat on a mat before Sherbro. Mr Burgess, Kizell, and myself, 
sat facing the kings. After shaking hands with the kings and 
princes, Mr Kizell said, " We are come." Kong Couber replied, 
" V/e see you ; we are glad ; we love you ; we do not hate you ; 
you are strangers among us ; we love your country ; we are friends ; 
we love peace as you do ; war is not good. But when you came 
from the headmen of yoiu" country to Sherbro, where is the letter 
you brought to Sherbro?" We answered, that we had instructions 
to visit Sherbro, and consult with the kings of the country ; but as 
king Sherbro was not personally known in our country, no letter was 
addn.'ssed to him. He afterwards said, if we had come in our ship 
directly to Yonie, they could give us an answer, and asked Kizell, 
if his father, the governor of Sierra Leone, did not send him with us. 
Kizell said the governor did not, as he was absent at the Gambia ; 
besides, the people of Sierra Leone were free to go where they 
pleased, without asking their father. I replied, that wc came to 
Sierra Leone strangers to all the people, and finding our friends, 
Kizell, Martin, and Anderson, to be acquainted with the language 
and kings of the country, we invited them to come with us. Kizell 
said he had a hotter from a friend in England to assist us ; besides, 
if strangers to king Sherbro arrive at Sierra Leone, it was not fit 
to let them stand alone, but come and introduce them. 

' Kong Couber said, " The country belongs to all the kings and 
peoj)le ; we cannot sell land unless we see them all." We, in 
reply, urged the necessity of a definite answer, that we might carry 
their good words to our people, or go to other kings, who would 
give us a good answer. W v inciuired whether the headmen and 
people could not i)e assembled before we went away. Kong Cou- 
ber answered, it was the busy season of the year, the rains were 
coming on. the people were clearing their plantations, imd sowing 



Colonization Society. 1 1 

their rice ; the kings were poor, and must work as well as the 
people ; the people could not be called together unless there was 
something to set before them. If we had goods to buy lands, and 
people to sit down, they would call the headmen together. After 
much palaver, and a forcible recapitulation of the objects of our 
visit, we inquired, " What answer shall we carry to our people of 
color ? Will king Sherbro receive his children ?" " Yes, we cannot 
hate them, we will receive them." ' 

Thus ended the council of the kings, and at the request of 
Kong Couber, the words of Sherbro were written in two 
books, one to be retained by him, and the other by the agents. 
The parting was amicable, and it was luiderstood, that when 
the people arrived with goods to pay for land, the kings and 
headmen would supply them according to their wishes. 

The agents visited other places among the islands, and ou 
the opposite coast, especially the Bagroo river, which empties 
into a bay opposite to the island of Sherbro. The country 
on the banks of the Bagroo is fertile, and soon rises into high 
lands and mountains in the interior. Everywhere the people 
were friendly, and several of the chiefs offered land, and pro- 
tection to settlers as far as their authority extended. Alter 
an absence of five weeks the agents returned to Sierra Leone, 
and in a few days sailed for England. Mr Burgess arrived 
in the United States on the 22d of October following ; but 
his worthy companion, Mr INIills, whose energy and zeal had 
contributed much to the success of the mission, was not 
destined to return ; he died on his passage from the coast of 
Africa. 

The information collected by the agents was encouraging 
to the friends of colonization, and induced the managers of 
the Society to concentrate their exertions to the single pur- 
pose of establishing a settlement in the Sherbro, or at some 
post in the vicinity. They made preparations for sending 
out a vessel with such free persons of color, as might vohm- 
tarily embark, and appointed Mr Crozer as agent to super- 
intend the affairs of the colonists, negotiate for lands, and 
form such temporary regulations, as might be necessary in 
the incipient stages of the colony. The expenses, which 
had been incurred by the managers, had more than absorbed 
the funds arising from subscriptions ; but an appeal to the 
citizens of Baltimore, by some of the zealous friends of the 



12 Colonization Society, 

Society, was followed by liberal donations from several muni- 
ficent, public spirited individuals of that city, and with this 
timely assistance the managers were enabled to prosecute the 
work they had begun, till the formation of auxiliary societies 
in different parts of the country, had brought a larger amount 
of means to their disposal.* 

In the progress of these events, the benevolence of the 
Society was also turned to another quarter. By an extra- 
ordinary oversight in the laws of Congress respecting the 
slave trade, thirty four natives of Africa, who had been 
recaptured, and carried into a port of Georgia, were left 
unprotected after their release, and advertised to be sold 
according to the laws of the state. Mr Meade, the Society's 
agent, immediately repaired to Georgia by the direction of 
the managers, and arrived in time to prevent the sale, and 
provide for the restoration of these unfortunate Africans to 
their native country. After discharging this office of humani- 
ty in IMay, 1819, Mr Meade travelled as agent in various 
parts of the United States, and was the means of estabhshing 
several auxiliary societies. f 

" The following is an extract from a letter written by Mr Mercer and Mr 
Key, to Ellas B. Caldwell, Esq. Secretary of the Colonization Society, dated 
August 1st, 1S18. ' In conformity with the wishes of the board of Managers, 
we proceeded as far as Baltimore, on our way to the north, iiitendin";, if 
necessary, to prolong om- tour to Boston. The liberality of Baltimore, of 
which the annexed list of subscribers affords an interesting testimony, render- 
ed it unnecessary, that we should i>roceed further, in order to obtain the funds 
immediatelv required by the mission to Africa.' Second .Annual Report, 
Appendix, p. 121. 

t The abolition act of 1807 threatens against offenders imprisonment and 
fines, as well as the rondcmnafion of any vessel engaged in violating the law. 
The purchaser or seller of any person of color, who should lie imported into 
the United Stales, is subject to a furfeiluh of ei^lit hundred dollars for evei^ 
person thus sold or bought. The following remarkable proviso, however, is 
attached to this part of the act ; ' that th? aforesaid forfeiture shall not extend 
to any seller or purchaser ol'aiiy ncgio, mulatto, or person of color, nUo may 
he sold or deposed of in virtue of ani/ rr;^ulnlion. irhidi may hereafter tie made 
bi/ uny of the legislatures of the sere'ral slates, in that respect, in pursuance of 
tiiis act,"and the constitution of the United Slates.' This clause refers to ano- 
ther preceding it in the act, by which it is declared, that no one shall hold any 
right or title to any person or persons of color brought into the United States 
in violation of the" law, but that these persons ' shall remain subject to any 
regulations, not contravening the )>ro\isions of this act, whirh the legislainrcs 
of the several stales or trrrilories, at any lime hereafter, may make for disposing 
of any such ii'i^ro, muluttu, or person nf color.' 

On* this |)art of the act the state of'(ieorgia put a most extraordinary con- 
struction. In devising means to provide for persons of color, uho might be 
illi<gallv introduced into the state, the legislature passed a law, empowering 



Colonization Society. 13 

By a law of Congress passed March 3d, 1819, for the 
more effectual suppression of the slave trade, the President 
was authorized to send government agents to reside on the 
coast of Africa. Mr Samuel Bacon and Mr John P. Bank- 
son were appointed. These gentlemen went out as passen- 
gers in the Elizabeth, a vessel chartered by the Colonization 
Society, which sailed from New York in the month of Feb- 
ruary, 1820, having on board Mr Crozer, and eighty eight 
colonists under his charge. The first intelligence from tlie 
agents, after they reached the coast of Africa, exhibited their 
prospects in a flattering Hght ; but the bright hopes, and joyful 
anticipations thus excited, were soon to be clouded with dis- 
appointment, and damped with sorrow. By some unaccount- 
able mismanagement, which, if it will suffer an explanation, 
will hardly admit an apology, the Elizabeth was allowed to 
sail at such a season, as to arrive on the coast at the very 
commencement of the rains. It required but a slender 
knowledge of African geography to ensure the conviction, 
that nothing could be more rash, than to subject a northern 
constitution to such a trial, and more especially on the low 
shores of the Sherbro, confined in bays where the only resto- 
rative influence, the refreshing sea breezes, could rarely 
come. 

These things considered, we are not to be surprised, that 
the next vessel from Africa brought the melancholy news of 
the death of the three agents, and more than twenty of the 
colonists. They were carried off by the fever of the chniate, 

the Governor to ' cause the said negroes, mulattocs, or persons of color io he 
sold, alter giving sixty days notice in a public gazette, in such manner as he 
may think best calculated for the interest of the state.' Sales under this law- 
have accordingly been made, and the proceeds rendered to the state treasury. 
Another case could not occur, perhaps, in w hich any state could pass a law 
in conformity with the letter of a law of Congicss, and at the same time 
do such violence to its spirit. It is a law to encourage, rather than abolish 
slavery ; and if it do not impeach the humanity of the statesmen of Georgia, 
it argues little for their invention, that they could not contrive a better mode 
of disposing of the unfortunate human beings, whom the crimes of their fellow 
creatures had torn from their homes, and tlnown unprotected into the arms of 
strangers. 

It is but fair to add, however, that the same act, which authorized these sales, 
gave permission to the Colonization Society to receive such recaptured Afri- 
cans, as might be subject to the above law, and return them to their own coun- 
try, after paying cdl the expenses which the state had incurred on their account. 
It was under the encouragement held out by this redeeming clause in the act, 
that the Society sent Mr Meade on a mission to Georgia. See Third Annual 
Report, p. 11. 



14 Colonization Society. 

heightened by exposure, fatigue, anxiety, and want of medi- 
cal assistance. After Mr Crozer's death, who sickened 
almost all soon as he arrived, no physician remained. Thus 
deprived of their guides, the colonists became desponding and 
disorderly, refused to submit to any authority, and, to fill up 
the hours of idleness, betook themselves to stealing and quar- 
relling. Daniel Coker, a colored man, who had been for 
some^years a preacher in Baltimore, was their nominal 
leader ; but the spirit of insubordination had gone abroad, and 
was not to be quelled. Mr Bacon iiad bought a schooner, 
which contained the stores for the colony, and of which 
Coker contrived to keep possession. After leaving a portion 
of the stores and provisions with the emigrants, he departed 
with the schooner for Sierra Leone, where Captain Wads- 
worth, of the United States ship John Adams, found him on 
the 6th of October. 

In addition to the fatality of circumstances, serious and 
unexpected difficulties arose from the character of the colo- 
nists. They were admitted with too little discrimination; 
vice and insubordination showed themselves on the voyage 
out ; and a large portion of them considered emigration as 
only a release from labor, and a claim on the society for sup- 
port. The experience of the managers has remedied evils 
from those sources, and they will not be Hkely again to occur. 

When the agents arrived at Sherbro, they found things 
much altered since the visit of their predecessors. The 
smooth and meek Kizell, who was a prime leader in the 
Friendly Society, and professed so lively an interest in the 
former mission, who played the hypocrite so artfully by his 
devotions on the sabbath, and by his daily reprehensions of 
the slave trade, and the bad habits of his neighbors ; this 
man proved in the end a treacherous, wily deceiver ; wuh 
more knowledge and experience than the surrounding natives, 
he was not a whit behind them in his vices. By having the 
confidence of the agents and colonists at first, he was able 
to practise on them the greater imposition. As for kmg 
Sherbro, and his minister of state, Kong Couber, we hear no 
more of the ' book,' which was left with them at their request 
two years before. The book was lost, and its words forgot- 
ten. A contract was made for lands on the Bagroo by Mr 
Bacon ; and part of the goods given in payment, but after his 



Colonization Society. 15 

death the contract was declared to be broken, and the 
goods were not returned. Nor do we learn that Somano and 
Safah came to demand the regal badge, which they coveted 
so much at the hands of Mr Burgess, or to redeem the 
pledge of friendship so cordially proffered. In short, after 
the agents' death, the conduct of the colonists was such, that 
they were neither respected, loved, nor feared by the natives, 
and no just ground of hope was left, that a peaceful establish- 
ment could be made either in the Sherbro, or Bagroo country. 
Captain Wadsworth advised Coker to return to the Sherbro, 
and sent to his assistance on board the schooner two midship- 
men, and a boat's crew often men. All attempts at negotia- 
tion with the natives proving unsuccessful, and there being no 
authorized agent to take charge of the colonists, they went 
back in the schooner to Sierra Leone, and soliched the pro- 
tection of the governor, till further instructions should be 
received from America. The governor acceeded to their 
proposal, and granted them the asylum they desired. 

At the beginning of the year 1821, the brig Nautilus sailed 
from Norfolk, having on board two government agents, Mr 
Winn and Mr Bacon, who were to be stationed on the coast 
of Africa. In the same vessel went out Mr Andrus and 
Mr Wiltberger, agents for the Colonization Society, and with 
them twenty eight new colonists. On the 9th of March they 
landed at Sierra Leone, where the emigrants were debark- 
ed, and a situation provided for them at Fourah Bay within 
the jurisdiction of Freetown. By the lease of a large estate 
suitable for cultivation, the colonists were amply furnished 
with employment and the means of comfort, till the agents 
could have time leisurely to explore the coast, and fix on the 
best spot for their ultimate establishment. Mr Andrus and 
Mr Bacon started on an expedition of inquiry ; they coasted 
along the Bagroo and the country south ; in some places the 
natives were hostile to their views, and in others, where they 
were more friendl)^ many requisites for setthng a colony 
were wanting. They proceeded to the Grand Bassa, a 
region situated in the nortli west borders of what is called the 
Grain Coast of Guinea, in the vicinity of Cape Mesurado, 
and about three hundred miles from Sierra Leone. Here 
they found a country more fertile, elevated, and healthy, and 
in all respects better calculated for their purpose, than any 
they had seen, and the natives well disposed to receive them. 



16 Colonization Society. 

But as ill luck would have it, the agents entangled them-» 
selves in a difficulty about the slave trade. They undertook 
to impose their own conditions, and insisted that the chiefs, 
who offered them lands, should banish this traffic from their 
territories. It manifested no share of wisdom to say any- 
thing on this delicate subject, and least of all to demand at 
the outset a sacrifice of a trade, however barbarous, in which 
the natives had been educated, and in favor of which were 
enhsted their habits, interests, and prejudices. Unequal to 
the task of impossibility, which they attempted, the agents 
desisted from closing any contract, and returned to Sierra 
Leone, favorably impressed with the country, to wait for 
further instructions. Here Mr Andrus was shortly after 
cut off by the fever, as were Mr and Mrs Winn, who died in 
the months of July and August. Mr Bacon returned to the 
United Stales, and the colonists were left under the sole 
charge of Mr Wiltberger. 

In their Fifth Annual Report the Managers express their 
gratification, that nearly at this juncture they were so fortu- 
nate as to engage the services of Dr Eli Ayres, the present 
agent of the Society. He repaired immediately to Sierra 
Leone, where he waited the arrival of Lieutenant Stockton 
in the United States Schooner Aligator. The first concern 
of these gentlemen was to find a place for commencing a 
colony, and from the reports of the agents concerning Bassa, 
their thoughts were turned to that country. The result of 
this expedition was the purchase of Cape INIesurado, where 
the colony was finally established. As the events connected 
with this purchase hold an important place in the history of 
the Colonization Society, we shall present them to our readers 
in the language of Dr Ayres. 

' When Lieutenant Stockton arrived at Sicira I.eone,' he observes, 
' I had an interview with him. He immodiatoly sent his offi- 
cers to examine the Augusta. They pronounced her not sea 
worthy, her masts, spars, and upper riirging being decayed. In 
consequence of the short allowance of his provisions, it became 
necessary for me to provide a method of n'turning to Sierra Leone, 
when we went down tlie coast. I applied to Mr INl'Cauley for 
masts and spars, but there was no timber to be had that would 
answer the purjiose. 1 then tried to charter a vessel for the pur- 
pose ; but one oiTered, which upon examination proved to be nearly 



Colonization Society. 17 

as bad as our own. Lieutenant Stockton consented, as no alterna- 
tive appeared, to venture in our own vessel. 

' On the 6th of December, we sailed out of the harbor. Lieuten- 
ant Stockton was good enough to put on board the Augusta Lieu- 
tenant M'Kean and four men. I took seven of our men. 

' We had a very calm passage, and our old vessel sailed remarka- 
bly well. We anchored last night in Mesurado Bay. This morn- 
ing, 12th of December, at day light, saw a number of Croomen 
rowing off to us ; got under way, and at fifteen minutes past ten 
o'clock cast anchor close under Cape Mesurado. In a few minutes 
the boats were hoisted out, and the Lieutenant and myself were on 
shore. 

* We informed the people, who gathered round us, that we had 
come to see the king ; that we wanted to get some land to build 
houses on ; that we had heard very good accounts of king Peter, 
and preferred settling with him ; that the people on the Bagroo 
wanted us to settle in their country, but we said, " No, we will go 
and see king Peter first ; if he won't let us have land, then we will 
settle somewhere else." We pretended to be very indifferent 
whether we succeeded with them or not, as there were so many 
places on the coast which we could get. This, in the end proved 
much to our advantage.' 

After this consultation they succeeded in gaining a sight of 
this formidable personage, king Peter. With him they had a 
short palaver, which ended in his thanking them for the pre- 
ference they had given him, and a promise that he would 
meet them again, and grant their wishes. In the mean time, 
Dr Ayers takes occasion to set forth the advantages possessed 
by Mesurado over any other situation on the coast. 

* In the first place,' says he, ' all I had read on the subject, all 
the information acquired from British Naval Officers, with whom I 
have talked since my arrival, as well as some other intelligent per- 
sons, concur in recommending Mesurado, for many reasons. Bassa 
is a low level counti-y, consequently must be deprived of refreshing 
breezes and forever unhealthy. It has no harbor, and six months 
of the year, landing in boats is impracticable. It has no good 
watering place. 

' On the contrary, Mesurado Cape is a considerable eminence of 
land jutting into the sea, high enough to partake of the refreshing 
sea and land breeze, but not sufficiently elevated to obstruct the 
vapors and be rendered damp and unhealthy, by exhalations and 
clouds hanging over it nearly half the day. There is a fertile 
island situated in the mouth of the river. A battery erected on 
the Cape would effectually command the harbor and entrance of 
3 



18 Colonization Society. 

the river. There is a pretty good harbor, and good watering 
place of excellent water. The land at this place is equally fertile 
with Bassa, or any other part of the coast. With good cultivation 
it will yield all the productions of the tropical climate. 

' These things taken into consideration, determined us to attempt 
to negotiate for Mesurado.' 

Thus decided on the most essential point, they immedi- 
ately proceeded to carry their plan into execution. Much 
time was spent in fruitless palavers ; difficulties were perpetu- 
ally started to embarrass the negotiations ; but by policy and 
prudent management these were at last removed. A pur- 
chase of lands was effected, in consideration of certain articles 
of merchandize to be given, part in hand, and part at a future 
day. An agreement of cession formally drawn up was signed 
by six kings on the one side, and Lieutenant Stockton and 
Dr Ayers on the other. Shortly after the purchase, Dr Ayres 
writes as follows. 

' We have this morning been on shore and selected a situation 
for a town, and directed six houses to be built against my return 
from Sierra Leone with the people. 

' I consider our contract not only as a triumph over savage preju- 
dice, but over European negotiation. For this you are entirely 
indebted to the energy, sagacity, and perseverance of Lieutenant 
Stockton. We have purchased a tract of country containing one 
million of dollars' worth of land, with the best harbor between 
Gibraltar and the Cape of Good Hope, an Island containing nine 
houses, and six others to be built ; there are excellent springs of 
water near the site we have selected for a city ; and at the pitch of 
the Cape, there is an excellent place for watering ships. All this 
we have purchased in fee simple, for little more than was stipulated 
to be given for the annual rent of Bassa, and not amounting to 
more than three hundred dollars. The island at the mouth of the 
river we have named Perseverance, to perpetuate the long and 
tedious palaver we had in obtaining it.' 

To this place all the colonists were removed, as soon as 
circumstances would permit, from Fourah Bay, with ha])py 
anticipations of future quiet and prosperity. We have not room 
to enumerate the series of disasters, which darkened these 
prospects, exposed them to new perils, surrounded them with 
new discouragements, and called them to endure new hard- 
ships. We cjiM only add, that some of the neighboring 
chiefs, who had not been consulted, were dissatisfied wth the 



Colonization Society. 19 

contract, threatened to cut off king Peter's head if it were 
not annulled, and to molest the colonists if they did not re- 
move. King Peter was greatly alarmed, besought Dr Ayres 
to take back the goods, give up the land, and quell the storm. 
In these times of turbulence and trouble, Dr Ayres discovered 
great coolness and good judgment, and so managed the affair 
as to pacify some of the disaffected kings, intimidate others, 
and, by bringing their jealousies and interests to counteract 
each other, to avert the mischiefs, which they might have 
produced, had they acted in concert. At all events, he 
retained possession of his purchased territory, and employed 
the colonists in building houses, and providing for their safety. 
In the month of June he took passage for the United States, 
to acquaint the Society with the condition and wants of the 
people, and obtain supplies. As yet the colonists had been 
able to erect but a small number of comfortable dwellings, 
nor were they free from apprehensions of an attack from the 
natives. But when the agent offered to take them to Sierra 
Leone till his return, they almost unanimously declined, and 
chose to maintain their position. A respectable man of their 
own color was appointed by Dr Ayres to superintend the 
establishment. 

On the 8th of August Mr Ashmun arrived at Mesurado in 
the brig Strong, which sailed from Baltimore. Under his 
charge were thirty five new colonists, among whom were 
fifteen recaptured Africans from Georgia, redeemed by the 
means we have above stated, and thus restored to freedom 
and their native land, through the instrumentality of the Colo- 
nization Society. Mr Ashmun discharged the office of tem- 
porary agent during the absence of Dr Ayres. The colonists 
were busy in erecting houses, and cultivating the lands ; the 
natives were quiet, and came peaceably to the Cape, some 
out of curiosity, others to labor for wages, and others with 
produce and merchandize. 

This state of tranquillity, however, was soon interrupted, 
symptoms of hostility began to show themselves among some 
of the chiefs, and it was found that one or two in particular 
were active in exciting others, and endeavoring to organize a 
general combination. This was partially effected, and in a 
few days an assault was made by an armed force vastly supe- 
rior in numbers and strength to the emigrants. The natives 



20 Colonization Society. 

were repulsed, but with a loss of three or four colonists killed, 
and several wounded. Very opportunely at this crisis. Cap- 
tain Spence, in the United States Ship Cyane, arrived at 
Mesurado. He afforded them assistance, built a fort mount- 
ing six guns, refitted and armed an old schooner for the de- 
fence of the colony, which he left behind, manned with six 
white and as many colored men. This relief was timely and 
effectual. Peace was restored ; a friendly intercourse was again 
opened between the two parties ; and, when Dr Ayres arrived 
in the Oswego from Bahimore, with sixty additional emigrants, 
INIay 24th, 1823, a good understanding seemed to prevail. 
No other evils threatened, than such as are incident to the 
privations of a new establishment, and the usual unhealthiness 
of the rainy season, which had then commenced. These 
evils, it is true, were severe, but not more so than was to 
have been expected. The present number of emigrants we 
believe to be about one hundred and fifty. A vessel, called 
the Fidehty, has been purchased by a company of gentlemen 
in Baltimore, and set apart as a packet ship to the coast of 
Africa, exclusively designed, as we understand, to ply regu- 
larly between that city and the colony at Cape Mesurado. 

Such is a brief historical outline of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society, which, although imperfect in many of its parts, 
is sufficient to indicate what have been the origin and objects 
of this Society, its aims and progress, its means and extent, 
its failures and success. Whatever may be thought of its 
scheme, our readers will perceive, that no want of zeal, of 
benevolent feeling, personal sacrifices, or wakefid activity, 
has marked its proceedings. That no mistakes have been 
committed, both in speculation and practice, in judgment and 
the application of means, we are not prepared to say ; on the 
contrary, we think there have been many. From various 
circumstances, some of these no doubt were unavoidable, but 
others were evidently the consequence of a too hasty decision, 
an undue warmth of imagination, and a deficiency of intelli- 
gence, which a proper degree of inquiry would have supplied. 

For instance, it must have been a star of no good omen, 
which at the very beginning directed the eyes of the managers 
to the low, marshy lands of the Shcrbro, as a suitable place 
for settling a colony of living men from the United States. 
Again, it is unaccountable, that almost every vessel with emi- 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 21 

grants on board has been allowed to depart, so as to arrive 
in the first weeks of the rainy season ; and this, after witness- 
ing the fatal effects of one or two disastrous experiments. 
Another error was the little attention paid to selecting emi- 
grants for the first transportation. From the best accounts 
they were idle, worthless, and dissolute. Whh the dregs of 
disorder thus mingled in the fountain, it could not be expect- 
ed, that the stream would flow pure and tranquil. These mis- 
takes have run into serious consequences, and ought to have 
been avoided. Experience, we have reason to beheve, has 
corrected them. 

We are next so consider the advantages, which may be 
hoped from the success of the Colonization Society, admitting 
its plans to be carried into full operation. 

These are too numerous and weighty to admit a detailed 
examination in this place. They spread over a field of un- 
limited extent, and pertain not more to that unfortunate 
portion of our race, on whose condition the influence of the 
Society immediately acts, than to our national policy and 
prosperity, to our security and happiness, to the value of our 
possessions and the efficacy of our moral and civil estabhsh- 
ments, to the execution of some of our most salutary laws, 
and to the brightening of the gloomiest prospects, which pass 
before the eyes of the patriot and philanthropist. On these 
advantages we can touch only in a rapid manner, and shall 
content ourselves with a few remarks concerning them, as 
they relate to this country ; to the abolition of the slave trade ; 
and to the civilization of Africa. 

To estimate the benefits, which a successful operation of 
the Colonization Society will confer on the people of this 
country, we must look for a moment at the present condition 
of the colored population, the manner in which the blacks 
stand related to the whites, and the slaves to those of their 
own color VA'ho are free. We shall here find a series of 
appalling evils, growing in strength as the ratio of population, 
increases, and bidding defiance to any remedy, which either 
our political or social institutions can apply. We cannot 
express our views on this subject in language more appro- 
priate and forcible, than that of Mr Harper, as contained in 
a letter to the Secretary of the Colonization Society, appended 
to the First Annual Report. 



22 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

' In reflecting,' says Mr Harper, ' on the utility of a plan for 
colonizing the free people of color, with whom our country abounds, 
it is natural that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer 
a benefit on ourselves, by ridding us of a population for the most 
part idle and useless, and too often vicious and mischievous. 
These persons are condemned to a state of hopeless inferiority and 
degradation, by their color ; which is an indelible mark of their 
origin and former condition, and establishes an impassable barrier 
between them and the whites. This barrier is closed forever by 
our habits and our feelings, which perhaps it would be more cor- 
rect to call our prejudices, and which, whether feelings or preju- 
dices, or a mixture of both, make us recoil with horror from the 
idea of an intimate union with the free blacks, and preclude the 
possibility of such a state of equality, between them and us, as 
alone could make us one people. Whatever justice, humanity, and 
kindness we may feel towards them, we cannot help considering 
them, and treating them, as our inferiors ; nor can they help view- 
ing themselves in the same light, however hard and unjust they 
may be inclined to consider such a state of things. We cannot 
help associating them in our feelings and conduct, nor can they 
help associating themselves, with the slaves ; who have the same 
color, the same origin, and the same manners, and with whom they 
or their parents have been recently in the same condition. Be their 
industry ever so great, and their conduct ever so correct, whatever 
property they may acquire, or whatever respect we may feel for 
their characters, we never could consent, and they never could 
hope, to see the two races placed on a footing of perfect equality 
with each other ; to see the free blacks or their descendants visit 
in our houses, form part of our circle of acquaintance, marry into 
our families, or participate in public honors and employments. 
This is strictly true of every part of our country, even those parts 
where slavery has long ceased to exist, and is held in abhorrence. 
There is no state in the union, where a negro or mulatto can ever 
hope to be a member of Congress, a judge, a militia officer, or even 
a justice of the peace ; to sit down at the same table with the re- 
spectable whites, or to mix freely in their society.' 

At this stage of our national progress, it is idle to investi- 
gate the causes, which liave fixed these impressions, and 
built up these unnatural barriers of separation ; and worse 
than idle to tell us, what we know full well, that they are un- 
reasonable, luijust, and inhuman. Let the fact be as melan- 
choly as it will, it is nevertheless a fact, and one with which 
we must he contented, without allcmptingto palliate the enor- 
mities out of which it has arisen, that the course of events, 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 23 

over which we have had no control, and the customs of 
society whose power no arm of flesh can counteract, have 
brought the whole body of the people of color, both bond and 
free, into a situation fruitful of infinite mischiefs to themselves, 
and to the whites. That watchful guardian of character and 
morals, public opinion, exerts its power in vain on the blacks, 
because this same public opinion has inhumanly branded them 
with a mark of degradation, which they feel it impossible to 
erase, and has thrust them into a rank among their fellow 
men, above which, neither virtue nor knowledge, wisdom nor 
piety, can enable them to ascend. 

In this respect, as Mr Harper has justly observed, there is 
a wide difference between slavery in America, and in all 
other countries. Color has beome a signal of inferiority, by 
the mere habit of connecting the idea of a slave with that of 
a dark skin ; nor can it be otherwise, while the principles of 
association hold their place among the first elements of the 
human mind. Anciently among the Greeks and Romans, as 
now among the different nations of Europe and Asia, no dis- 
tinction of color existed between the slave and his master. 
Then slavery was remediable evil ; emancipation washed out 
the stain ; intellect and virtue had their influence ; to have 
been a slave was no bar to any degree of dignitjiand respect, 
which future merh might deserve ; Terence and Epictetus 
lost none of the admiration justly due to their talents, because 
they were slaves ; they were not the less caressed by the 
great, admired by the wise, and honored by all. 

No such thing can happen in this country. Give freedom 
to a slave, and where do you place him ^ Not above the 
repulsiveness of popular feehng, not in the rank of the meanest 
white man, not in a sphere wliere he can gather around him 
the affections, or participate the friendships, or be consoled 
by the sympathy, of the respectable members of the commu- 
nity. He is pressed down, till debasement becomes a habit ; 
he has grovelled, till the desire of rising out of the dust is 
lost ; ambition has withered in its starting freshness ; emulation 
has been bhghted in the opening bud ; virtue has sunk weary 
with ill requited exertion ; and hope, the last kind comforter of 
the wretched, has forsaken his bosom, and left him reckless 
of his condition and his destiny. 



•24 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

The character of slavery, as it exists in this country, ren- 
ders emancipation to any practicable extent impossible, unless 
there shall be some place out of the United States, to which 
free persons of color may be sent, where they may enjoy the 
civil privileges of which, for wise purposes, it is here necessary 
that the laws should deprive them ; and where they may 
obtain those means of happiness, which freedom and self 
government will put into their hands. No dream can be 
more wild, than that of emancipating slaves, who are still to 
remain among us free ; we unhesitatingly express it as our 
belief, and we speak from some experience, that the free 
people of color, as a class in the slave holding states, are a 
greater nuisance to society, more comfortless, tempted to 
more vices, and actually less quahfied to enjoy existence, than 
the slaves themselves. In such a state of things, manumission 
is no blessing to the slave, while it is an evil of the most seri- 
ous kind to the whites. 

This we deem an important consideration, because it brings 
the subject of emancipation to a single point. We suppose 
it is the cherished hope of every true patriot, as well as of 
every benevolent man, that the day will come, when the 
scourge of slavery shall no longer be felt in the land, when 
the rod of cliastisement shall be withdrawn, and all voices 
shall join in the song of freedom. There is one possible way, 
and only one, in which this event can be accomplished, or 
even approximated. It is by colonization, and by this alone, 
that the mischiefs of slavery, and, what is more to be dreaded 
than slavery, the living pestilence of a free black population, 
can be lessened. We take the position to be settled, that no 
possible remedy can be imagined, while the people of color 
continue with us, whether as slaves, or as freemen subject to 
their present legal disabilities. Can any combination of facts 
more clearly demonstrate the necessity of procuring an asylum 
for these people, in some ))lace remote from our own territory, 
or more loudly demand the union of all hearts and hands in 
aiding the benevolent and well designed beginnings of the 
Colonization Society ? As all hope of future relief rests on 
some experiment of this sort, wiio does not see, that the 
sooner it is begun, the less formidable will be the obstacles to 
contend against, and the more encouraging the prospects of 
success ? 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 25 

' Great as the benefits are,' says Mr Harper, ' which we may 
promise ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, 
by its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our 
slaves, and to secure to them a better treatment h\ rendering them 
more worthy of it, there is another advantage infinitely greater, in 
every point of view, to which it may lead the way. It tends, and 
may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and entirely, in the United 
States, of slaves and slavery ; a great moral and political evil, of 
increasing virulence and extent, from which much mischief is now 
felt, and very great calamity in future is justly apprehended. It is 
in this point of view, I confess, that the scheme of colonization 
most strongly recommends itself, in my opinion, to attention and 
support. The alarming danger of cherishing in our bosom a dis- 
tinct nation, which can never become incorporated with us, while 
it rapidly increases in numbers, and improves in intelligence ; 
learning from us the arts of peace and war, the secret of its own 
strength, and the talent of combining and directing its force ; a 
nation which must ever be hostile to us, from feeling and interest, 
because it can never incorporate with us, nor participate in the 
advantages which we enjoy ; the danger of such a nation in our 
bosom, needs not be pointed out to any reflecting mind. It speaks 
not only to our understandings, but to our very senses ; and how- 
ever it may be derided by some, or overlooked by others, who have 
not the ability or the time, or do not give themselves the trouble, to 
reflect on, and estimate properly, the force and extent of those great 
moral and physical causes, which prepare gradually, and at length 
bring forth, the most terrible convulsions in civil society ; it will 
not be viewed without deep and awful apprehension, by any who 
shall bring sound minds, and some share of political knowledge and 
sagacity, to the serious consideration of the subject. Such persons 
will give their most serious attention to any proposition, which has 
for its object the eradication of this terrible mischief, lurking in our 
vitals.' 

In the course of his further remarks, Mr Harper draws a 
vivnd picture of the mischievous effects growing out of the 
colored population, and sets forth the advantages, which the 
country would gain by gradually releasing itself from this 
burden. The author speaks not more from deep reflection, 
than from observation and experience ; the accuracy of his 
knowledge and the soundness of his judgment are alike to be 
trusted. His views are philosophical ; they are just in princi- 
ple and fact. ReveaHng the causes of the evils, which now 
afflict us, he proves them to be radical, and suggests the only 
method by which they can be torn up and destroyed. Draw 
4 



26 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

off the free blacks ; then give freedom to the slaves, and \ei 
them follow. White laborers will come in and take their 
place, as fast as the odium of slavery wears away ; labor will 
be more productive, lands more valuable, and the means of 
wealth more abundant ; a vicious, worthless, dangerous popu- 
lation will be succeeded by an intelligent and thriving class, 
who will stand as pillars of strength in the social fabric. This 
is no impossible task, if rightly undertaken ; so great a change 
must necessarily be brought about by imperceptible degrees ; 
the Colonization Society has taken the first step ; let its 
enterprise be seconded with energy, and the work will in due 
time be done. 

Nor are the benefits at which we have hinted wholly pros- 
pective. They began to be realized when the first colonist 
left the country, and they will increase as others go after 
them. They will be seen in the improved character and 
condition of the slaves, who remain ; and in the removal of 
the temptations to vice and idleness, which are thrown in their 
way by the free blacks. The slaves will become more peace- 
ful and moral ; they will be happier, and better qualified for 
enjoying the blessings of liberty, when the day shall come for 
them to hold a place in a colony of their free brethren. 
Hence the benefits to the white population in the slave hold- 
ing states are twofold ; the slaves are made better, and the 
poisonous influence of the free colored people on society 
grows weaker as their numbers diminish. These benefits 
attend the progress of the scheme, which, when it is perfected, 
will not only form the blacks into a new and improved race, 
living under their own laws, and relying on their own resources, 
but will add to the wealth, the physical strength, political 
weight, and moral and intellectual ascendancy of those dis- 
tricts of country, where the colored population is now the 
most numerous. And it will not be less a national benefit, 
for this is one of those cases, above all others, in which the 
whole has as deep an interest as a part. 

Besides these advantages, which pertain to our domestic 
prosperity, many others may be exjiected of a connnercial 
nature, I'rom the establishment of a colony in Africa. On 
this subject it is impossible to speak with the accuracy of 
calculation, and conjectures would be fruitless ; yet we may 
nflirm, that no part of the world is more fertile, dian western 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 27 

Africa, or better calculated to produce the articles of com- 
merce usually found in tropical climates. A trade of con- 
siderable profit has for many years been carried on with the 
natives along the coast, by individuals both in this country and 
Europe. The slave trade has been a severe check to the 
success of lawful enterprise, as it has bartered with the na- 
tives and taken in exchange, not the fruits of their industry, 
the products of their soil, the rewards of honest labor, but the 
spoils of unnatural wars, commenced on the barbarous prin- 
ciple that strength gives right, and prosecuted with the cruel 
intention of conquering to enslave. The physical strength of 
the country has been employed, not in the thriving pursuits of 
agriculture, and the improvement of the arts, but in sanguinary 
contests for the plunder of human beings, in murders, kidnap- 
pings, and all the atrocious outrages, which savage man, under 
the dominion of his savage passions, can inflict on his fehov/ 
man. The inhuman traffic in slaves has resisted the tide of 
lawful commerce, by rendering it unnecessary to the natives ; 
but this bar will gradually be removed ; justice will not always 
be deaf to the cries of the sufferer ; the energetic measures 
adopted by the United States and Great Britain will continuej 
as they have done, to scatter terror in the minds of the mis- 
creant trafficers in blood and crime ; and even the Holy 
Alhance may one day think its plighted faith worth remem- 
bering, although in an unguarded hour it was for once pledged 
in, the cause of freedom and humanity. Let the slave trade 
be driven from the earth, and few countries will afford more 
inducements to commercial enterprise, than western Africa.* 
The instance of Sierra Leone presents us with no unfavor- 
able view of what may be done in the way of commerce. 
That colony contended for a long time with many embarrass- 
ments J it was owned by a Company, whose means were 

* On the 8th of Februaiy, 1815, thn Congross of Vienna, consisting- of five 
of the principal European powers, made a soltnin engagement, that tlie traffic 
in slaves should cease. Three of these powers have since enacted naunicipal 
laws to carry this engagement into effect. But here the farce has ended. 
Except England, not one of the assembled powers has done any thing to prove 
that it was in earnest, notwithstanding the promptness of the British govern . 
ment to remind them of their failure of duty, and to acquaint them with the 
perpetual violation of the compact under the saiiclion of their respective flags. 
For an interesting and detailed correspondence of the Britislj Ministry v itli 
Foreign Powers on this subject, see Parliamentary Paptra on the Slave Trade. 
printed by order of the House of Commons, Aprii, 18iJ. Nos. III. 1\ 



28 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

exhausted before its commercial operations could go into 
complete effect ; it suffered from wars and privations. Yet 
all these difficulties have vanished, and the commerce of 
Sierra Leone has of late been flourishing. Thirty five vessels 
were entered at that port in the year 1821, registered chiefly 
in London, and containing goods, whose invoice amount was 
somewhat more than $450,000. The duties collected in the 
colony during the same year amounted to $28,000. The 
principal articles exported in return were ivory, palm oil, 
camwood, gum, beeswax, gold dust, hides, rice, lumber of 
various sorts, mahogany in logs, coffee, African wild spices, 
Guinea grains, leopard skins, and mats. These are brought 
down by the natives to Sierra Leone, and exchanged for 
cheap cloths, and various articles of European manufacture. 
The trade is a profitable one to the importer, and, as it ex- 
tends, will run into new and promising channels. Mesurado 
is better situated for trade than Sierra Leone ; it stands at 
the mouth of a much larger river, is in the neighborhood of a 
more fertile country, and accessible to a larger population in 
the interior. Why, then, should it not grow up to be a place 
of commercial importance, employ many of our seamen, add 
to the tonnage of our shipping, contribute to our revenue, and 
thus confer a positive good on tlie nation, at the same time it 
relieves us of a positive and alarming evil ? Nor ought our 
views to be confined to Mesurado. Civilization and commerce 
will go hand in hand, and new sources of profitable intercourse 
will be opened, in proportion as the natives learn the best 
modes of supplying their wants. 

Let the scheme of colonization next be considered as 
affecting the Slave IVade, and it will be seen, tliat its benefits, 
in regard to the suppression of this traffic, are scarcely less 
important, than those already enumerated.* In 1808, the 
earliest time provided by the Constitution, the slave trade was 
prohibited in the United States, and laws were enacted inflict- 
ing severe penalties of fines, imprisonments, and forfeitures 
on those, who should participate in this guilty traffic. Ten 
years afterwards this law was improved, by throwing on the 
defendant the liurden of proof, that the colored person intro- 

* For a bricC, biil clear and well diffi-sted hi- tory of the laws abolisliins; <lie 
Slave Trade, both in Gr«at Britiiin and this country, we refer our readers to 
Mr \Valsirs .'Ippcal, Sec. IX. 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 29 

duced by him into the country was lawfully brought in. The 
laws were still found to be imperfect, as they neither afforded 
a sufficient check to the trade by American citizens on the 
coast of Africa, nor provided any means of redeeming and 
restoring to their country the unfortunate victims, who might, 
in violation of the laws, be introduced into the States. To 
correct these imperfections, the act of March 3d, 1819, 
already mentioned, was passed, authorizing the President to 
station public vessels on the coast of Africa, make such ar- 
rangements as he should deem expedient to rescue and sup- 
port recaptured negroes, and appoint agents to reside there, 
and receive such persons of color, as should be sent from this 
country, or be taken by our cruisers from slave vessels on the 
coast. One act more was wanting to mark this wicked traffic 
with its true character, and diis act was passed by Congress, 
May 15th, 1820, wherein it is declared, that every person 
proved to be engaged in the slave trade is guilty o( piracy, and 
shall be punished with death. The glory of taking this noble 
stand against the long cherished, guilty customs of the whole 
world, and of asserting the claims of humanity on the broad 
principles of nature and right, was reserved for the American 
Congress. It is a bright page in the records of time, and the 
event will be hailed in all coming ages as a memorable epoch 
in the history of the human race. It has already gained the 
spontaneous applause of every benevolent heart, not more in 
this country than in Europe. Let it not be forgotten, that 
this step was first recommended by a committee of Congress 
acting on a memorial of the Colonization Society.* 

This memorable law, in connexion whh that of 1819, would 
seem to be little else than a dead letter, without the existence 
of an American colony on the coast of Africa. Where are 

* Two able and veiy important decisions have been rendered in our courts 
under the acts of Congress respecting- the Slave Trade. The first was in the 
case of the Plattshurgh, by Judge Van Ness, in the District Court of the 
United States in New York ; and the second, in the case of the French ship 
La Jeune Eugenie, in the Circuit Court at Boston, December, 1821, by Judge 
Story. The latter opinion is remarkable for the force of ai-giiment with which 
it defends the high ground it takes, and the conclusive proof it exhibits, that 
the solemn acts of the great governments of the civilized world, denouncing 
the slave trade as an offence against justice and humanity, have stigmatized this 
traffic as a violation of the laws of nations, and that courts of justice are au- 
thorized to form their decisions on this principle. See the Case of the Jeune 
Eugenie, as reported by William P. Mason, Esq. 



30 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

the agents to be stationed ? What security will they have for 
their persons ? How are they to preserve the dignity of public 
agents of the American government, or in what manner can 
they discharge the duties of their office, in opposition to the 
interests of the people, whose protection they claim ? 

In the President's next message to Congress, after the above 
act was passed, he observes, in referring to the agents whom 
he had appointed, ' they will have power to select the most 
suitable place on the coast of Africa, at which all persons 
who may be taken under this act shall be delivered to them, 
xvith an express injunction to exercise no power founded on 
the principle of colonization, or other power than that of per- 
forming the benevolent offices above recited, [providing for 
the recaptured negroes] by the permission and sanction of the 
existing government under which they may establish them- 
selves.' But what existing government is there on the coast 
of Africa, which is not engaged in the slave trade ? And is 
it to be credited, that any such government would give per- 
mission for an agency to be established, whose professed 
object should be to oppose its customs and discourage its 
trade ? We hold the thing to be impossible. While the 
agents were supplied with presents enough to bribe the kings 
into acquiesence, the case might not be entirely hopeless, but 
tempt their cupidity by letting loose in their dominions a cargo 
of recaptured negroes, and we will answer for their integrity 
no longer. It is not a characteristic of the untutored mind to 
resist the stronger motive, especially when the force of habit 
accords with the impulse of interest. And then it is not 
likely, that the slavers on the coast would regard with a friendly 
eye these enemies of their commerce, acting under the sanc- 
tion of a foreign power. Let the subject be viewed as it may, 
and there will not be a shadow of hope, that two unprotected 
agents, fixing themselves among the natives, could do anything 
towards an effectual execution of the laws of the United 
States. They would effect little else, than to supi)ly the slave 
market in Africa to the full amount of recaptured persons, 
whom they should receive. 

That such a scheme should have been contemplated by the 
Executive, was evidently the result of necessity ; Congress 
had directed agents to be appointed, but had not looked for- 
ward to the thing of chief importance, the mode in which they 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 31 

should be so employed as to render their agency of any prac- 
tical value. Thus situated, the President had no alternative, 
but to appoint agents, and instruct them as he did. Happily, 
however, the experiment was not tried. The government 
made common cause with the Colonization Society ; the 
agents of both were directed to act in concert, and, as far as 
we can learn, they have thus acted till the present time. We 
beheve, indeed, that both agencies are now vested in Dr 
Ayres alone. For all the good effects, which have grown out 
of the law of 1819, the government is indebted to the Colo- 
nization Society. The latter has no doubt received eminent 
services from the former, and probably has been able to sus- 
tain hs operations in Africa only through the aids thus re- 
ceived, but still the project of a colony belonged to the So- 
ciety, and its eiforts have been turned exclusively to that 
object. 

The President was extremely guarded in his instructions 
to the agents, and imposed on them ' an express injunction to 
exercise no power founded on the principle of colonization.' 
We do not intend here to enter on the topic of colonization in 
hs pohtical bearings ; these are unquestionably important, and 
there may be reasons why it is inexpedient for the United 
States to found colonies abroad for any purpose, although we 
have never seen them stated. The present is obviously a 
case in which the laws of the Union, and some of its laws of 
first moment, cannot be executed, except through the medium 
of a colony. Notwithstanding the President's cautious injunc- 
tion, the agents have exercised no power to any purpose, 
which was not ' founded on the principle of colonization.' 
Is it said, that this was only a private colony, to which the 
agents resorted as affording them protection, and facilities 
for discharging their duty ? Let this be granted, and our 
position will then hold the same, that they have done nothing 
except through the aids of a colony. 

And, moreover, a slight inspection will show, that the 
colony at Mesurado wants nothing to make it a public colony 
already, but the mere form of recognition on the part of the 
government. To all practical purposes it has been such from 
the beginning. Lieutenant Stockton of the United States 
Navy was one of the signers to the treaty, by which the land 
was ceded to the Society, and he afforded such assistance as 



23 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

was requisite in establishing the colonists on the ground. 
Similar aids have been rendered by all the public vessels on 
the coast. Captain Spence built a fort on the Cape at the 
public charge, supphed it with guns, and the American flag 
was hoisted on its battlements. He also left an armed 
schooner for the better protection of the colonists. The pre- 
sent agent, Dr Ayres, is appointed under the law of Con- 
gress, and supported by the government. These facts we 
state as evidence, that the laws against the slave trade cannot 
be put into execution, except ' on the principle of coloniza- 
tion.' All the efforts, which have as yet been made, have 
forced themselves of their own accord into this channel, and 
any attempt to compass the object on other principles would 
end in a total failure. We repeat then, that to the Coloni- 
zation Society belongs the praise of having projected the only 
practicable scheme of carrying the abolition laws into effect, 
and affirm, that these laws will be executed in proportion as 
the government, either directly or indirectly, acts on the prin- 
ciples of this Society. Let the starting point be where it 
will, here is the centre to which every successful movement 
will come at last. 

Many facts might be collected in this place illustrative of 
what is above stated, and rendering palpable the labors of 
the Colonization Society, not more in promoting the cause 
of humanity, than aiding the government in the execution of 
its laws. The generous and timely interference of the Society 
in behalf of the recaptured Africans in Georgia has been 
mentioned, and also the happy issue to which this interfer- 
ence led, in calling the attention of Congress to the subject, 
and procuring the passage of laws by which all persons of 
color, criminally introduced into the United States, are under 
the protection of the general government. 

Another event of more recent date has occurred, which 
equally proves the vigilance of the Society, and the benefits 
of its labors. 

Several months ago a vessel came into the harbor of Balti- 
more, which, from various circiunstances, was thought to have 
negroes unlawfully detained on board. So strong was the 
ground of suspicion, that a few individuals took on themselves 
the responsibility of searching the vessel, and they found 
concealed eleven negroes, who were foreigners, incapable of 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 33 

speaking or understanding the English language. A prose- 
cution was accordingly entered against the captain, as being 
engaged in the slave trade; but as he affirmed, that the 
negroes were his own property lawfully acquired, and no proof 
to the contrary could be adduced, he was acquitted. The law 
demands, that in all doubtful claims to the property of slaves 
the labor of proof shall rest on the claimant, and as the 
captam, in the present case, could produce no such proof 
the negroes were detained by the court, although he was 
permitted to escape. Through the humanity of some of the 
active members of the Colonization Society, these negroes 
were provided for, by being distributed among several families 
m the neighborhood of Baltimore, to remain till they should 
learn the language, and be able to express their wishes in 
regard to their future destination. 

Fortunately about this time, a young African by the name 
ol Wilkinson, a native of the Susoo country on the Rio 
Pongas, arrived in Baltimore. Some years ago a chief of 
the Susoos entrusted two of his sons to the care of the captain 
of a French vessel, trading in the Rio Pongas, who proniised 
to take them to the West Indies, have them educated, and 
return them at the end of four years. When the stipulated 
time had gone by, and nothing was heard of the boys Wil- 
kinson was despatched to the West Indies to search therJi out 
He succeeded in finding them, but had the mortification to 
learn, that the treacherous captain had not been true to his 
word ; he had deserted the boys, and they were turned over 
to work with the slaves. Wilkinson recovered them, how- 
ever, without difficulty, sent them to their father, and came 
himself to Baltimore to take passage home in the colonization 
packet. He had already been in England, and spoke our 
language with fluency. 

Soon after his arrival he visited some of the recaptured 
Africans just mentioned, and discovered that they came from 
the region bordering on his own country, and spoke a dialect 
which he well understood, although it was not his native Susoo 
tongue. They were overjoyed at seeing a person with whom 
they could converse, but were incredulous when he told them, 
that they were free, and might return home if they chose! 
They said he was deceiving them, that they knew they were 
slaves, and should never again see their native land, their 
5 



34 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

relatives, and friends. So thoroughly were they impressed 
with the melancholy conviction of being in slavery, that no 
protestations on his part could make tliem believe in his entire 
sincerity. They exclaimed with raptures at the thought of 
freedom, and of going back to Africa, but would not hope 
that sirch a dream could ever be realized. 

The situation of these persons was made known by the 
Colonization Society to the President of the United States, 
who said, that if proper certificates were given of their desire 
to return, the government would pay the expense of trans- 
portation. The navy agent at Baltimore was ordered to have 
them examined. They were brought together for this pur- 
pose, and as the examination could only be carried on 
through Wilkinson as interpreter, he gave his testimony under 
oath. We shall speak of this interesting examination nearly 
in the words of Mr Coale, Secretary of the Baltimore Auxi- 
liary Society, who was present, and took an account of the 
proceedings in writing. 

The general question was put to them severally, whether 
they wished to remain in this country as freemen, or be sent 
to Mesurado, and thence, if practicable, to their homes t 
Doivrey was the first, who was called to answer. He was a 
chief in his own country, of whom Wilkinson had some know- 
ledge. He replied ; ' I wish to go home, I wish to s^e my 
father, my wife, and children, I have been at Mesurado, I 
live but three days' walk from that place.' Barterou answer- 
ed ; ' Let me go home, I have a wife, I have two children, 
I live a morning's vi'alk from Dowrey.' The next person 
called was Mousah, the son of a highly respectable chief, 
with whom Wilkinson was personally acquainted. He had 
been living with General Harper, and when asked if he was 
not disposed to remain, and be instructed, and go home here- 
after and teach his countrymen, he repUed ; ' General Harper 
is a good man, he will give me clothes and food, and be kind 
to me, but he cannot give me my wife and children.' When 
the general question was put to Cubangerie, he replied ; 
• Why do you ask this over and over ? Do you not know 
that nothing is so dear as a man's home ? 1 am so rejoiced 
at the thought of returning, that I want words to express my 
thanks.' Mazzey said ; "' My mother is living, my father is 
living, I have two sisters, 1 shall be grateful to those, who 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 35 

send me to my family and friends.' The answer of Fanghah 
was ; ' I shall be joyful to go home, I have a father, mother, 
wife, sister, and three children to meet me in my own 
country.' Corree said, that all he desired was to be landed 
in Africa, and he should soon find his way home. Banhah 
made nearly the same reply. 

After these eight persons were examined, they expressed 
great anxiety to be joined by two of their companions not 
present. These had been placed with a man, who, it seems, 
was unwilling to part with them, and had reported that they 
wished to remain. This proved to be a false pretence, set 
up with a view to profit by the labor of the negroes ; and 
whatever may be the power of the law in such a case, it will 
be difficult to make it appear in the eye of justice in any 
better light, than the crime of being engaged in the slave 
trade. A writ on a fictitious suit was taken out against the 
negroes, and they were thus released from thraldom, and 
brought to the place of examination. When they arrived, 
their companions sprang with ecstacies to meet them, embrac- 
ed them again and again, caught them in their arms, raised 
them from the ground, and continued for half an hour at 
intervals to embrace and shake them by the hand. Nothing 
could exceed their joy when told that they were free, and 
would sail in a day or two for Africa. 

These ten persons, thus providentially rescued from per- 
petual slavery, and made happy in the anticipations of again 
beholding their native land, and of carrying gladness to many 
a weeping, disconsolate heart, owed their deliverance chiefly 
to the Colonization Society. They have gone home to prove 
to their countrymen and friends, that white men are not all 
barbarians, trafficers in human flesh and artificers of human 
misery, but that the flame of benevolent feeling may some- 
times kindle and burn, even in the breasts of this portion of 
their race, whom they had hitherto known only as catchers of 
their own species, and workers in crime. We know not the 
springs of other men's joys, but as for ourselves, call it weak- 
ness, or enthusiasm, or what you will, we frankly confess, 
that the heartfelt delight of having been instrumental in 
restoring these men to freedom and happiness, would have 
been to us a double compensation for all the embarrassments, 
rebuffs, and obstacles, numerous and severe as they have 



36 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

been, which the members of the Society have thus far expe- 
rienced. Had they brought to pass from the beginning only 
this one deed, we would hft up our voice in praise of their 
noble achievement, and say they had been blessed with a 
good reward. These rescued Africans, full of gratitude for 
their deliverers, sailed with Wilkinson in the Fidehty for 
Mesurado, in the month of October last. Dr Ayres had 
directions to send them home as soon as they arrived. One 
boy still remains. He spoke a different language from any 
of the others, and could not be understood by them. He 
will doubtless be returned, when he shall have learnt our lan- 
guage sufficiently to make known his wishes. 

In regard to the advantages, which may be expected to 
Africa itself from a colony in that country, they are too 
numerous to be mentioned in detail, and the most of them 
too obvious to require much remark. From the time the 
eloquence of Wilberforce, and the high minded, untiring 
zeal of Clarkson, first awakened a slumbering world to a 
recognition of the dearest, although long forgotten rights of 
humanity, down to the present period, every day has proved 
the grand secret of African degradation to consist in the 
slave trade. Abolish this effectually and forever, and you 
have done all ; you have raised a prostrate continent to a 
proud eminence in the rank of physical and moral being. 
The laws of civihzed countries will avail something, but ten- 
fold greater will be the influence of a well ordered colony 
residing in the midst of the people, teaching them the arts of 
hfe, showing them the value of mental and moral improve- 
ment, and convincing them by example, that civilization in 
all its branches is the spring and the safeguard of human 
happiness. The si)irit, which cherishes the unholy practice 
of slavery, holds dominion in the minds of the people, planted 
there, and nurtured there, it is true, by the avarice, cupidity, 
and crimes of civilized barbarians, yet it must be rooted out 
and destroyed in its source, before the evil will cease. Let 
the navies of the world be combined, and line tlie coast of 
Africa from Tangier to Babclmandcl, and even make it cer- 
tain that not a slave shall escape, this would not be abolish- 
ing the slave trade. The spirit would still lurk in the vitals 
of one hundred and fifty millions of peojilc, and even in this 
.sphere, narrow compared with its present extent, it would 



Mvantages of Colonization in Africa. 37 

show itself in all the miseries of intestine wars and plunder- 
ings, misrule in government, and heartrending separations in 
the domestic and social circles. 

As a first step, the slave trade must cease ; the work of 
humanity will then be commenced ; the door of legahzed 
crime will be closed, and the dawn of innocence will rise to 
witness the expiring struggles of guilt. Next enlighten the 
natives, and the cause of humanity will be completely vindi- 
cated ; nature will teach the rest ; governments will grow up, 
founded on the eternal basis of truth and right ; peace and 
happiness will reign in the land ; the horn of plenty will pour 
its abundant stores at the feet of the laborer ; wisdom will 
assert her empire in the mind ; the affections will bloom with 
new freshness and fragrance in the heart ; and the injured, 
insulted, degraded African will rise to a level with his species, 
and prove to his deriding oppressors, that the same God, who 
has stamped his image on other men, has in equal kindness 
bestowed on him in full measure the sources of feehng, the 
power of intellect, and all the ennobling principles of human 
nature. 

These two objects, the suppression of the slave trade, and 
the practical civilization of Africa, may be pursued together. 
Each will advance the other. A colony on the coast, at the 
same time it affords facilities for carrying into effect the laws 
against the slave trade, will be a post of observation to detect 
illegal trafficers, and, by heightening the risk, to discourage 
the boldness of adventurers. The hiding places of mischief 
will be revealed, and proper remedies applied ; the artifices 
of iniquity will be laid open, and the machinations of delibe- 
rate crime frustrated. The interests of a colony will har- 
monize with its favorable circumstances, and prompt it to 
watchfulness, and a speedy exposure of abuses. It can give 
timely information to public cruisers, and guide their efibrts 
to a more efficient service. 

But the good effects of a colony have yet a much higher 
character, as seen in the local and moral improvement of the 
natives within its influence. Wars in Africa are terrific ; hke 
armies of devouring locusts, they pass over the land and 
leave a depopulated desert behind. ' To give no quarter to 
an enemy,' says Governor Ludlam, ' or to put to death pri- 
soners taken in the field, would doubtless reduce their num- 



38 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

ber ; but men, and men in arms, would be the only sufferers ; 
and the slaughter of an army would tend to put an end to 
the war. In Africa, however, war is made equally on men, 
women, and children ; those who are unable to lift a weapon 
are as much its victims, as those who carry a musket, and a 
chief can never want funds for carrying on a war, so long as 
his enemy has abundance of people.' It is to be remember- 
ed, however, that the motives, which drive Africans to war, 
are different from those of all other nations. They are not 
stimulated by revenge, hke the savage Indians ; nor hurried 
on by the impulse of wanton cruelty, like the Moors of the 
desert ; nor restless with the ambition of rising above their 
neighbors, and extending their dominion, like more civihzed 
warriors. The mere love of indolence, and desire of minis- 
tering to their wants and pleasures whh the least trouble ; 
these, unsubdued by any power of moral principle, which 
refinement would quicken, are the original springs of African 
wars. These springs are kept in action, if they were not 
created, by the slave trade. The natives steal and sell one 
another, because purchasers are always at hand ; they go out 
to battle for the same reason, and exult in victory only as its 
trophies of human victims will glut the avarice of the slavers 
on the coast. 

The same causes have introduced among them a kind of 
judiciary system, not less unprincipled and shocking to hu- 
manity. An accused person is summoned before a chief, or 
headman, on the merest pretence of misdemeanor, subjected 
to a mock trial, and condemned to slavery ; and it may be 
the unfortunate sufferer is one of the domestics or family 
connexions of his accuser and judge. Chiefs will combine, 
and hold palavers on another chief, and sentence him to a 
fine of a certain number of slaves. These he must procure 
by violently seizing his own people, or sending marauders to 
kidnap them among his neighbors. Courts of this sort, which 
were introduced by the slave trade, are sanctioned by cus- 
tom, and upheld by the laws of the land. Another terrible 
mode of trial is by the Red Water, which is generally on the 
charge of witchcraft. Few survive this operation. All who 
die arc accounted guilty, and the common result is, that 
several persons belonging to the family of the deceased are 
doomed to slavery. 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. SO 

We are here speaking of customs, which time has matured, 
and which the natives do not suppose to be criminal. What 
more probable remedy can be held out for these local and 
formidable evils than colonization ? Let the slave trade be 
abandoned, and the thrifty business of man-stealing and man- 
killing will no doubt droop, and perhaps be neglected, because 
it will be unprofitable. But to what honest and useful occu- 
pation shall the natives then resort? The arts of industry 
they have never learnt, and its happy effects they have never 
experienced. If, however, they can in the meantime wit- 
ness the rising prosperity of a separate body of colonists, 
who enjoy no local advantages over themselves, and who gain 
strength and gather comforts around them, by a course of hfe 
directly opposed to the one, which they have pursued, will 
not such an example touch the rudest mind, and compel it to 
think and dehberate ? Will it not slowly unrivet the chains 
of habits, which do such violence to nature, unlock the prison 
house of the moral sense, and give freedom and energy to 
the long enthralled intellect ? Such will be the natural pro- 
gress of events. We have the uniform testimony of writers, 
and what is more than all, the authority of Park, that the 
negro character is mild, gentle, and generous, not prone to 
resentments, and equally ready to forget, and reluctant to 
inflict an injury. This is far from being a warhke, or vicious 
character ; such odious traits, as it now possesses, have been 
engrafted into it by hands better practised than their own in 
the devices of wickedness ; and these must be removed by a 
process as gradual as that, by which they have taken so deep 
a root, and acquired so firm a trunk. Better habits will grow 
out of better principles ; the ferocity of ignorance, and the 
bane of indolence, will disappear before the rising hght of 
knowledge. 

Subsidiary to these great ends will be the mental culture, 
and religious instruction, derived to the natives from the 
direct labors and indirect influence of a colony. We have 
no room here to engage in a defence of the African intellect. 
We shall leave it, for the present, to the Abbe Gregoire and 
his followers to search out the existence and the merits of 
African literature, and to Buffon and the naturalists to prove 
from the physical organization of the negroes, that they are 
inferior to other branches of the human race. We have as 



40 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

little disposition to magnify as to depreciate their native powers, 
and witli all our sensibility to the injuries they have suffered, 
we have no eulogies to bestow on their intellectual greatness, 
nor any encouragements to offer, from what they have done, 
that extraordinary results are to be expected hereafter. We 
do say, however, that a fair experiment has not been tried. 
Place Europeans under the same train of circumstances for 
centuries, and we know not on what principles of human na- 
ture, or maxims of philosophy, or rules of political calculation, 
it could be supposed they would act differently, or raise them- 
selves higher. In their own country, the negroes are an 
inquisitive people ; they have a high respect for learning, and 
are fond of having their children instructed. 

Wherever they have been visited by the whites, they have 
expressed a willingness to have teachers come among them, 
and to send their youths abroad to be educated. It has been 
no uncommon thing for chiefs to put their sons under the care 
of captains of slave ships, who have taken them to the West 
Indies, placed them at school for a stated time, and then sent 
them home. Children from the neighborhood of Sierra 
Leone have been educated in England, and then returned to 
their friends. Sixteen years ago there were eight mission- 
aries in the Susoo country, who enjoyed the protection of the 
chiefs, and were encouraged by them to establish schools. 
They lived in tranquillity, and were successful, till they un- 
dertook to interfere in matters of state, suggest changes in the 
government and laws, and thus, in the spirit of the more 
shrewd Jesuits, to act the triple character of schoolmasters, 
divines, and politicians. They were then dismissed from the 
country, though not without regret on the part of the chiefs, 
who were pleased with the instructions they had given. A 
valuable monument of their labors still exists in a Susoo Gram- 
mar and Vocabulary, a translation of a part of the New Tes- 
tament, and several tracts. This task was chiefly performed 
by Mr Brunton, aided by a number of Susoo youths, who had 
lived in England. Among the Susoo people, whose language 
is spoken over a territory larger than Great Britain, these 
works are now to be found. 

The Arabic is spoken and written by a few persons in 
nearly all parts of the interior, of wiiich any knowledge has 
been obtained. Young persons are sent to a great distance 



Advantages of Colonisation in Africa. 41 

to be instructed in Arabic learning, which, after all, consists 
in httle else, than being able to read the Koran, and speak 
and write the language. We have been made acquainted, 
from the best authority, with one instance, in which a young 
man was sent to Timbuctoo for an education of this sort, from 
the banks of the Rio Pongas, a distance of fifteen hundred 
miles. Some of the more distinguished chiefs correspond 
with one another in Arabic, and give passports to travellers in 
the same language. We have before us a translation of an 
address orignally written in Arabic, and sent three years ago 
by Dakliaba, king of Bambarana, to the ' kings and chiefs of 
the West,' or in humbler phrase, to the governor of Sierra 
Leone, and king George of England. It is couched in a 
gorgeous style of oriental hyperbole, worthy of a Dey of 
Algiers, or a Bashaw of Tripoli, and shows at least, that the 
sense of regal dignity is far from being extinct in the breasts 
of the monarchs, whose dominions spread over the sources of 
the Niger and the Gambia. We have also seen a specimen 
of Arabic composition from the hand of an African, now a 
slave in this country, which was not only written with readi- 
ness and ease, but with striking elegance of chirography. 
He is from the interior of Africa, and was taught in his own 
country. 

These facts prove all we desire in the present connexion, 
which is, that the natives of Africa are in some degree sensi- 
ble of their ignorance, and willing to be made wiser. Could 
a more propitious beginning be imagined, or a field be better 
prepared for culture ? You have no obstinacy to conquer, 
no wild and restless wanderings of a thoroughly savage dis- 
position to tame, no contempt of knowledge and the refine- 
ment of civilized fife to soften, no torpid indifference to rouse, 
no spectres of a paralyzing superstition to dispel. You have 
minds to deal with naturally simple and artless, tractable in 
temper, docile, ready to learn, and requiring only the use of 
judicious means properly applied. 

These positions are verified, not more by the above facts, 
than by the instance of Sierra Leone. In the twelve schools 
of that colony, there are now two thousand persons of different 
ages, under the care of about thirty teachers. Their general 
good deportment, and progress in learning, are represented, 
by the committees appointed to examine the schools, in terms 
6 



42 Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 

the most flattering. They were all recaptured from slave 
ships. Some have already become teachers themselves, and 
gone out to instruct the tribes bordering on the colony. The 
mechanic arts, agriculture, the plainer branches of manufac- 
tures, and whatever gives a spur to invention, value to labor, 
a right direction to power, strength to morals, and refinement 
to thought, may well be reckoned among the elements of an 
African" education, which the natives are glad to learn and 
capable of receiving. 

But with none of these things can the natives become ac- 
quainted, except through the agency of colonization. They 
must be taught at home, or not at all ; if they are ever to be 
raised to a higher rank, and to know the blessings of civilized 
life, it must be on the soil, which gave them birth. And 
what should prevent a colony, founded on just principles, from 
communicating to the extent of its influence all needed in- 
struction ? We do not expect the natives of Africa will become 
at once adepts in science, literature, or the arts ; nor do we 
look for the time, when they are to be statesmen, orators, 
poets, philosophers. Whether they will ever shine as lumi- 
naries in the world of mind and sentiment, is a question we 
are not ambitious to solve. Whether their future poets will 
rival the ancient bards of Dahomy, who are said to have re- 
hearsed poems, which took up several days in the recital, 
may be left to the speculation of the curious. Even central 
Africa boasts of its antiquity, and, if the legends tell truth, 
when Orpheus was charming the forests into life, and Hesiod 
was tracing the genealogies of the gods, and weaving nature 
and time into song, and Homer was singing the wars of the 
Greeks and the wanderings of Ulysses, then the bards of 
Nigritia were celebrating the exploits of their heroes, and 
publishing the records of their renown in the ears of listening 
kings and admiring nations. If such times have been, they 
are long gone by, and it is not among our fond dreams, that 
they are soon to be revived. Nay, we are willing to confess, 
that we hope more from the descendants of the countrymen of 
Hesiod and Homer, even under the cruel rod of a Turkish 
despotism, and vviiat is scarcely less discouraging, the unfeel- 
ing neglect of a northern autocracy, which dreads that liberty 
should breathe in the earth, than we do from the degenerate 
Dahomans, or their equally unfortunate brethren of other 



Advantages of Colonization in Africa. 43 

nations, who have suffered for ages under the discipline of 
the slave trade. But notwithstanding this concession, we hold, 
that from competent teachers, and the example of a well or- 
ganized community before their eyes, they may learn enough 
to qualify them for the happy state of society, which consists 
in a right use of the bounties of nature, and a proper estimate 
of the value of labor, industry, and virtue. Nothing more is 
hoped or desired from the immediate effects of a colony. 

In regard to rehgious instruction, no heathens can be so easily 
initiated into the principles of Christianity, as the inhabitants 
of central and western Africa. They beheve for the most 
part in a Supreme Being, but their notions are obscure, with- 
out system or consistency. They have no conceptions of the 
attributes of God, nor do they ascribe the operations of nature 
to bis agency. When Artus told them, that their gold, fruits, 
and flocks were given them by the Deity, they replied, ' the 
earth gives us gold, the earth yields us maize and rice, the 
sea affords us fish, but if we do not labor ourselves, we may 
starve before our God will help us.' They beheve in an evil 
and good principle, existing in distinct forms, each of which 
has power over them ; and they are also strongly affected by 
charms, termed fetiches on the coast, and Obi in the West 
Indies. It matters not of what material the charm is made ; 
when once consecrated in the imagination of the person 
whose reverence it commands, it is supposed to have a power 
little inferior to that of the Deity, and to hold in its mysterious 
virtues the destiny of mortals. 

Such a religion has too few points of consistency to acquire 
any strength by age ; its principles are too vague to gain a 
permanent entrance into the mind ; it has nothing to engage 
the fancy or captivate the understanding. It is not like the 
magnificent fabric of Chinese theology, made sacred by the 
venerated names of ancient statesmen and sages, standing as 
the firmest pillar of the empire, and secured from innovation 
by the impermeable panoply of a language, which to change 
would be to destroy. Nor is it like the more philosophical, 
and perhaps more ancient system of the Hindoos, rendered 
imposing by its thousand volumes of commentaries, and per- 
petuated by an unceasing, overgrown priesthood. Nor is it 
like the monstrous folly of the Tartars, where the wretched 
idea of a Grand Lama has driven common sense from the 



44 Practicability of Colonization iii Africa. 

minds of millions, and united them in an unconquerablie systein 
of visionary absurdity. In short, the world does not contain 
an uncivilized people, more free from the bias of heathenism, 
than the negroes. 

The task of plucking out errors, and eradicating deep 
rooted superstitions, which is so formidable in most cases, is 
one of little difficulty with them. The soil is already prepared 
for the seed ; and this only requires to be scattered with a 
careful hand, and nurtured with gentleness and skill. The 
Mahometans have had good success, and many persons in the 
central parts of Africa have been brought over to their faith. 
What then may we not expect from the simple and engaging 
truths of Christianity ? Shall we say, that the sublime doc- 
trines of Jesus, and the holy precepts of his religion, have less 
power to convert the heathen, than the profane vagaries of 
the Arabian impostor ; or that the rude followers of the latter 
have more zeal, than the humble disciples of the former ? 
What christian will listen to so ungracious an imputation ? 
The inference must be allowed, then, both from a view of the 
religion of the negroes, and the success of Mahometanism 
among them, that they are better prepared, than any other 
barbarous people, to receive religious instruction and adopt 
new principles of faith. Thus may a colony be accessary to 
the advancement of religious truth, which could come from 
no other quarter, as well as to th6 civil improvement, temporal 
interests, and social happiness of the people among whom it 
is stationed. 

Having now closed what we proposed to say on the advan- 
tages of colonization to this country and Africa, we proceed 
to a few hints on its practicability. 

The objection, which has been urged with considerable 
emphasis against the Colonization Society, that the scheme of 
forming a colony in Africa is impracticable, we think suffi- 
ciently answered by the fact, that numerous colonies have 
been settled there, some of which are now of long standing. 
The Portuguese, the French, the Danes, and the Eni;;lish, 
have establishments scattered along the coast from Cape Verde 
to the Cape of Good Hope, which must no doubt be profitable 
to those governments, or they would not have been maintained 
till the present time. More than a century ago the French 
established a post on the Senegal, upwards of four hundred 



Practicability of Colanisiation in Africa. 45 

miles from its mouth ; at Congo the Portuguese have grown 
into a numerous colony ; and at the southern extremity of 
Atnca, the Dutch and English together have spread over a 
country larger than the southern peninsula of Europe As it 
is not, therefore, a question to be soberly discussed, whether it 
is possible for America to do what half a dozen other nations 
have done, the notion that colonization is impracticable hardly 
deserves to be considered. 

We may here revert again to Sierra Leone, as affordins: 
an instance more directly in point for our present purpose! 
because it was founded on principles nearly alhed to those of 
the Colonization Society. It was started by a private com- 
pany and the original settlers were taken from abroad. At 
the close of the American Revolution many negroes, who had 
lelt their masters during the war, and gone over to the British 
standard, were dispersed in the Bahama Islands and Nova 
Scotia, where the white loyalists took refuge. Some found 
heir vvay to London. Four hundred of these were shipped 
by their own consent to Sierra Leone in 1787. The black 
settlers in Nova Scotia became dissatisfied with the rigorous 
treatment they received, and complained to the British min^ 
istry Emigration was thought the only remedy, and twelve 
hundred accepted the invitation to be transported at the 
expense of die government to Sierra Leone, where tbe^ 
arnved five years after those from London. It thus appears, 
that he colony at Sierra Leone was first settled by negroes 
vvho had been slaves in this country, habituated to the same 
climate and possessing the same character, as the person, 
with whom It IS contemplated to supply the new American 
colony. Ihe Maroons from Jamaica did not arrive till 1805 
llie land was obtained by purchase of the natives 

For some time the colony proceeded but slowly; it was 
attacked by the French; the natives were hostile sickness 
made its ravages ; want and fatigue caused despondency. 
But these difficulties were conquered in due time; the lands 
were cleared; villages are now rising up, churches and 
schools are multiplying, agriculture has become a settled 
occupation, and society has assumed a shape denoting the 
regularity and happiness of civilized life. The Sierra Leone 
Colony now consists of twelve thousand inhabitants, nearly 
ten thousand oi whom are recaptured Africans, thus rescued 



46 Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 

from an inhuman bondage, which would otherwise have been 
entailed on them and their posterity forever. Why shall not 
the colony at Mesurado accomplish as much in the same 
time ? And should it promise no more, who will refuse to 
give his heart and his hands to a work, which may save ten 
thousand of his fellow beings from slavery and wretchedness ? 

It has been a good deal insisted on, as a proof of the im- 
practicability of colonization, that emigrants could not be 
induced to embark. Experience has shown the futility of 
this objection. Volunteers have ever been ready in greater 
numbers, than the Society could receive, and at this time the 
names of more persons are on the hst of application, than it 
would be prudent to send at once. They should not be 
suffered to go out faster than they can be well provided for, 
and we presume that two or three hundred a year would be 
quite as many as could find comfortable quarters in a new 
colony. The ratio of capacity for receiving others will of 
course increase very rapidly ; it will be in proportion to the 
surplus of labor among the resident colonists over what is 
necessary to supply their immediate wants. The avails of 
the rest can be appropriated to the use of new adventurers, 
in supplying them with food, houses, and other requisites of 
life. On this principle the time will come, in tlie natural 
progress of things, when there will be ability to provide for 
emigrants in Africa as fast as the condition of the blacks, and 
the established order of society, will permit them to depart 
from this country. The early disasters at Sierra Leone were 
owing in a great measure to the numbers landed at once, 
without comfortable dwellings, clothes, provisions, and good 
attendance in sickness. Our own colony has experienced 
similar calamities from the same causes. 

Again, it has been said, that the expense of transportation 
is so great, as to prevent its being carried to any available 
extent. This objection is founded on a false estimate of 
facts, as any one may be convinced, who will thoroughly 
examine the subject.* The Society has sent out emigrants 
at fifty dollars a piece, and it might be done much lower, 
if the business were prosecuted on a large scale. Many 

' For ail olahoratc and inf;;oniotis calculation in regaixl to tlip cxppnsi' of 
transr-ortation, see extracts ironi the f'retleric County Auxiliary Society, in 
ilie .'Sppendiv. to the Fourtli Jlnniml Ihporl of Iht Colonization Socitll/, l>- 57. 



Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 4T 

colored persons have property more than sufficient to pay their 
own passage, and laws might be passed to cause others to 
save their earnings, till they amounted to enough for their pas- 
sage money. Besides, what should prevent some of our 
public vessels being employed in this work, and at an expense 
very little exceeding that, which is now required to keep them 
in service ? And last of all, why should not a portion of the 
national revenue be appropriated to an object, which so vitally 
affects the rising interests of our confederacy ? 

Let it be our pride to follow, as far as the genius of our 
institutions will permit, the liberal and high minded example 
of a younger republic. The Government of Colombia has 
not only decreed, that ' all, of whatever color, are entitled to 
the same privileges as white men,' but has enacted a statute 
for the gradual abolition of slavery within its own territory, by 
establishing a manumission fund, arising out of a tax on a 
portion of the property left by persons at their death. Why 
may not our Congress so far walk in the steps of the generous 
friends of humanity in Colombia, as to appropriate a reasona- 
ble amount to relieve the country from the nuisance and terror 
of the free black population ? Or, should the argument from 
humanity and this example be thought of Uttle weight, why 
should not such a measure be prompted by a regard for the 
deepest concerns and supreme welfare of the nation ?* 

The unhealthiness of the climate is another objection, 
usually advanced against the practicability of a settlement in 
Africa. In respect to this, we beg permission again to refer 
to the European colonies, which have been so long in opera- 
tion. That the coast of western Africa is unhealthy to north- 
ern constitutions, is not denied ; but no proof has been exhibit- 
ed, that it is more so than other tropical climates, or even the 
alluvial districts of the United States. Let a colony from the 
northern and middle states be transported to the low and 
fertile parts of the Carolinas, or to the banks of the Missis- 

'The law of manumission passed by the Concress of Colombia, July 19th, 
1821, is introduced by the following preamble ; ' That, according to the eternal 
principles of reason, justice, and the wisest policy, no republican government, 
truly just and philanthropic, can exist without seeking to alleviate all those 
classes of mankind, that are degraded and unhappy; and that an object of 
such importance to the Republic ought to be realized, and slavery be gradually 
abolished, so that, without compromising the public tranquillity, or affecting 
the rights, which the proprietors really possess, the freedom of all the inhabit'^ 
ants of Colombin mav in a few vcars be ensured.' 



48 Practicahility of Colonization in Afriaf. 

sippi, in the warm season, and the mortality would be much 
greater, than has been known in Africa, even in the midst of 
the fatal rains. By Meredith, Wadstrom, Dr Lind, and 
others, who have had an opportunity of being informed, it is 
stated with confidence, that the country about Sierra Leone 
is equal in salubrity to the most healthy of the West India 
Islands. The mortality of the colonists in Africa has not 
been more alarming, than it was among the original settlers of 
New England, and other parts of America. The unusual 
sickness of the first emigrants to Sierra Leone, and of those 
gone from this country, depended on incidental causes, many 
of which have no necessary connexion with the climate, and 
which will never occur to the same degree, when the forests 
shall be cleared, the miasmata of decayed vegetation removed, 
and the people supplied with comfortable habitations, and 
wholesome food. On the whole, there seems no reason to 
suppose western Africa more unhealthy, than other parts of 
the world, to which people have emigrated for centuries, and 
where they have built cities, estabUshed governments, and 
grown into empires. 

The local situation selected for our present colony enjoys 
many positive advantages. In speaking of the tracts of coun- 
try around Cape Monte and Cape Mesurado, Dr Leyden 
says, ' These districts have been described by Des Marchais, 
Villault, Phihps, Atkins, Bosman, and Smith, as pleasant, 
salubrious, and fertile.' Again he adds, ' Cape Mesurado is 
a detached mountain, steep and elevated towards the sea, 
with a gentle declivity on the land side. The adjacent coun- 
try is extremely fertile, producing sugar cane, indigo, and 
cotton, without cultivation.'* 

* Sen Murray's Historical Account of ©iscoverios and Travels in Africa, 
Vol. II. p. 21>(). On the fertility of Africa, ami it.-, advanta<jes for colonization, 
Mungo Park writes in t!ie most decided and encoiirag'ino; manner, after having 
seen more of the interior than all other fcmropnan travellers besides. 'It can- 
not admit of a doiiht," says he, 'tliat alt the rich and valuable productions, both 
of the f-iist and West Indies, might easily be naturalized, and hrouyht to the 
utmost perfection, iu the tropical p.irts of this immense continent. Nothing is 
>\ anting to this end but exami)le to enlighten the minds of the natives, and 
instruction to enable them to direct fhe'.r industry to proper objects. It was 
not possible for me to beliold the wonderful fertility of (he soil, the vast herds 
of cattle, |)ropcr both lor labor and food, and a variety of other circumstances 
I'avorable to colonization and agriculture, ami re/lect withal on the meaivs, 
wiiicli presented themselves of a a ast udand navigation, without lamenting that 
a country, so abundantly gilted and favored by uaturc, should remain in its 



Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 49 

No man is better acquainted with the coast of Africa, pro- 
bably, than Sir George R. Collier, who has been the chief 
commander of the British squadron stationed there for three 
or four years. In his Second Report to the British govern- 
ment, respecting the settlements in Africa, he thus alludes to 
the attempt to form a colony at Sherbro. ' Had America,' 
he observes, ' who, excepting Great Britain, appears more in 
earnest than any other nation, established her lately attempted 
settlement at Cape Mesurado, or even at Cape Monte, she 
would at least have secured a more healthful, and by far a 
more convenient spot, than her late ill chosen one in the 
Sherbro. And an estabhshment by America, either at Cape 
Monte, or Cape Mesurado, would have afforded to the friends 
of humanity the most rational hopes, that in the immediate 
neighborhood of the American colony the demand for slaves 
would have been checked, and thus a settlement would have 
been formed, useful to the purposes of civilization ; and from 
its actual, though distant intercourse with the frontiers of 
Gaman and Ashantee, have opened the line of lucrative spe- 
culation to the American merchant, and with the additional 
advantage of doing so without interfering in any way with the 
prosperity of the British Colony of Sierra Leone.' These 
remarks are of more practical value, than volumes of specu- 
lations penned in this country, founded on conjecture, or 
deduced from abstract principles. They are from a person, 
who enjoyed the best opportunities for observation, repeatedly 
traversed the coast, and whose business it was to supply his 
government with accurate knowledge. On this testimony, 
connected with that of our own agents, we are willing to rest, 
and are satisfied with the conviction, that Mesurado affords 
all the requisite facilities for building up an establishment, 
which ought to receive the cordial support of every friend of 
his species, every lover of right and freedom, and every sin- 
cere patriot in this country. 

The formidable encroachment, which the present article 
has already made on our accustomed limits, compels us to 

present savage and neglected state. Much more did I lament, that a people 
of manners so gentle and benevolent shotild either be left as they now are, 
immersed in the gross and uncomfortable blindness of pagan superstition, or 
permitted to become converts to a system of bigotry and fanaticism, which, 
without enlightening the mind, often debases the heart.' Park's Travels, 
American edition, p. 227. 

7 



50 Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 

desist from several remarks intended for this part of the sub- 
ject. We trust, that from what has been said, our readers 
will be enabled to arrive at a just understanding of the histo- 
ry and objects of the Colonization Society, the practicabihty 
of these objects, and the methods by which they may be 
attained. Much more might be added to illustrate this last 
topic, both in regard to the local circumstances of the colony 
at Mesurado, and to the means employed at home to supply 
it with emigrants ; but the view we have taken is enough, we 
think, to justify us in the behef, that the plan in its outlines 
is well conceived, and wants only the vigorous cooperation 
of the public to make it entirely successful. 

We should be glad, also, if we had room, to press a few 
of the reasons, why the particular attention of our national 
legislature is demanded to this colony, and to urge the im- 
portance of its being taken wholly under the charge and 
jurisdiction of the government. In regard to what is called 
the constitutional question, whether the United States have 
power to establish such a colony, we know not in what it 
differs from the question, whether they have power to put 
their own laws in execution, or take the only efficient mea- 
sures to suppress an evil, whose contagion is daily spreading, 
and which threatens a more serious calamity than any other 
to our national prosperity, if not to our political being. It 
would be strange, indeed, if it should be made plain to our 
legislators, that the constitution stops their ears to the cries of 
humanity, ties their hands from the work of benevolence, and 
compels them to nurture the seeds and foster the growth of 
our own destruction. And it comes to this, if they have not 
power to establish a colony abroad to receive the free blacks ; 
for we hold it to be a position, as firmly grounded as any law 
in nature or society, that our black population can never be 
drawn off, except through the medium of such an establish- 
ment. Let us denominate our colony a Territory, if we will, 
and then it will not differ from our other Territories, except 
in being separated from the confederated States by an ocean, 
instead of a river, or lake. A voyage from Washington to 
Mesurado can be performed as quick as to the Falls of St 
Anthony, or the Saut of St Mary, and much quicker than to 
the Mandan Villages. 



Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 51 

The expediency of such a territory is to be settled, per- 
haps, on other principles, but it would hardly seem possible 
for a division to exist on this point. The advantages to this 
country of a colony in Africa, under the patronage of the 
government, are not to be calculated ; and it needs not be 
reckoned among its least recommendations, that it would 
hold out the prospect of removing, in a good degree, the 
causes of the present differences between the governments 
of the United States and Great Britain, concerning mixed 
commission courts, and the mutual privilege of search on the 
coast of Africa. It may be added, moreover, that should 
the colony be taken into the hands of the government, it will 
enable Virginia to pursue her long meditated plan of provid- 
ing for the colonization of her free blacks. It is but reason- 
able to suppose, also, that other states would follow the 
example, especially those, which have already, by a vote of 
their legislatures, approved the scheme of the Colonization 
Society. They might act with a confidence and security, 
which they cannot feel in a private body, however strong in 
its numbers, or fortunate in its operations. 

But we do not mean to encourage the Society in any 
relaxation of duty, by thus proposing to take away its most 
oppressive burden. We would excuse it from the trouble- 
some, if not impracticable task of controlling and governing 
the colony, but we would have all its energy, its zeal, and its 
resources employed in carrying forward the grand object. 
This can be done in a more efficient manner, by acting in 
concert with the government ; every weight thrown into the 
scale will then be felt in its full force. 

The Society may watch over the execution of the laws, 
keep an eye on abuses, and communicate to the government 
valuable intelhgence, which it would not derive from any 
other source. In the year 1807, shortly after the abolition 
act was passed in England, the African Institution was formed, 
with the avowed object of affording all possible aids to the 
full operation of that act. To this end it has been of essen- 
tial service, by taking cognizance of events, disseminating a 
knowledge of African affairs, and occasionally presenting 
memorials to Parliament, or addresses to the King, calling 
their attention to particular subjects, which the inquiries and 
experience of the Institution proved to them demanded 



52 Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 

additional legislation, or more vigorous executive measures. 
The Annual RejDorts of the Listitution have sent out a fund 
of information, which has equally enlightened the public 
mind, and given a tone to public sentiment. The attention 
of the Colonization Society may be profitably turned into 
similar channels. 

Another object, which may prove beneficial to the plan of 
colonization, is that of promoting travels and discoveries in 
the interior of Africa. Thirty six years ago the African 
Association was organized in London for this purpose, and 
almost all the knowledge of interior Africa, which has since 
come to light, has been derived through the agency of this 
Association. Our enterprising countryman, John Ledyard, 
was the first person employed in its service. He embarked 
in the undertaking with an enthusiasm and perseverance 
peculiar to himself alone, and which had previously carried 
him through many perils and sufferings to every quarter of 
the globe ; but he found an untimely grave in Egypt, when 
he was on the point of starting in a caravan for Nubia. The 
interesting and valuable discoveries of Hornemann and Park 
were made under the authority of the same Association. 
Let our Society send persons to explore the Mesurado river, 
or to engage in any other expeditions of discovery, from 
which the colony can be benefited, or the cause of African 
civilization advanced. 

Schools ought also to be established, both in this country 
and in Africa, for the instruction of free persons of color, 
recaptured negroes, and natives. It is desirable, that there 
should be at least one institution in the United States, de- 
signed exclusively for an African education, where youths 
may be taught wiiii the express view of going to Africa, and 
where young natives, whom their parents may suffer to come 
away, shall be looked after and educated. The auxiliary 
societies, scattered over the country, will be enabled to select 
the best subjects for such a school fioui among the families 
of those, who may be inclined to emigrate, and each auxi- 
liary society may engage to support such persons as it shall 
send. 

To the common elementary branches of knowledge, might 
be added the history and geography of Africa, the laws and 
cMstoms of the people, accounts of the climate, soil, and 



Practicability of Colonization in Africa. 



'06 



trade, and whatever else should qualify the pupil for enter- 
ing on his new sphere to the best advantage to himself and the 
community, in the capacity in which he shall be destined to 
act. Schools of the same kind may be set up in the colony, 
with a course of instruction adapted to circumstances. The 
humbler and more useful arts of Hfe may be taught to the 
natives, who may be induced to attend the schools. The 
most promising of the colonists may learn some of the 
languages of the interior, which shall fit them for greater 
mfluence and usefulness. Religious instruction may be in- 
culcated, churches built, and preachers supported. In short, 
the Colonization Society will never want employment for its 
means and strength, nor meet with any obstructions to the 
fullest exercise of its benevolence and activity, ahhough it 
shall relinquish the arduous and embarrassing task of holding 
supreme direction over the colony. 

While writing the above, we have been gratified to see 
accounts of new auxiliary societies springing up in different 
parts of the country, and especially one at Richmond, Virgi- 
nia, with the venerable Chief Justice Marshall at its head. 
The sanction of such a name may well confirm the confi- 
dence of the steady advocates for colonization, and commu- 
nicate a quickening power to the tardy zeal of the waverin- 
When, in addition to this, we reflect on the unqualified ap- 
probation with which the present Chief Magistrate of the 
nation has uniformly regarded the designs of the Coloni- 
zation Society, the number of distinguished persons found 
among its active patrons, and the progress it has made under 
an accumulation of discouraging circumstances, we can hard- 
ly desire a stronger testimony to the importance of its objects, 
or a more auspicious presage of its ultimate success. 



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